Three down, three to go. The two newest of the governor's planned six New Century early college charter high schools open their doors this fall to give students early college opportunities with an emphasis in engineering-related fields.

Itineris Early College High School and the Northern Utah Academy for Math, Engineering and Science (NUAMES) will open this fall, joining the Academy for Math, Engineering and Sciences (AMES). AMES opened last fall.

Itineris, located on Salt Lake Community College's campus in West Jordan, will be opening with 84 students. It will offer only 11th grade in the first year, with grade 12 coming the following year and possibly lower grades later on.

NUAMES will start this year with 270 students at two different sites — one at the Davis Applied Technology Center in Kaysville and the other at Two Rivers High School in Ogden. The school pulls students from the Weber-Ogden-Davis area and has about 100 on the waiting list.

Six charter high-tech high schools were authorized by the 2002 Legislature. They are to target underserved, underrepresented and underperforming populations in the science, math and engineering fields

Another two schools are on deck, gearing to open fall 2005. The Utah County Academy of Sciences is an early college high school sponsored by Provo, Nebo and Alpine school districts and Utah Valley State College, and will be located on the UVSC campus. The other, Success Academy, will be in Iron School District on Southern Utah University's campus. Both schools will apply for charters this year.

Patricia Bradley, director of the State Charter School Board, said the sixth and final school will find its home in Logan and be under way within the next couple of years.

The high-tech highs will all operate under supervision of the State Office of Education. Teacher-student ratios are low, with practical experience such as internships planned as part of the program.

In some schools students can potentially graduate with an associate degree as well as a high school diploma, entitling them to the state-sponsored New Century scholarship.

Stephen Jolley, principal of Itineris, said the schools provide rigorous access to college education. "Students will leave us with a degree that has earning power and they are ready to move on to college."

One goal of the schools is to recruit women and minorities into the science and engineering fields.

Nonetheless, charter schools are free public schools and therefore subject to an open enrollment process.