Visit almost any high school classroom and you'll find a student who is nervously tapping his foot and barely able to sit still, one whose eyes have glazed over as her teacher lectures on Dickens or another who, in the middle of a lesson, exclaims, "So what?"

Jim Nourse, principal of Lebanon High School, knows there are such students at his school. Many go through four years with labels attached to them: Disengaged, passive, underperforming.

Nourse wants to call them something else: Inspired.

He plans to submit a proposal to the New Hampshire Board of Education this week to create a charter school that would serve high school students who have lost interest in their education. The potential students run the gamut from advanced learners who need an accelerated curriculum to stay engaged to teenagers who long for hands-on learning but are lost in lengthy lectures.

"The whole point is to make each and every one of the kids a self-directed leaner," Nourse said last week. "There are hundreds of ways that kids learn. Why are we trying to say there is only one legitimate way to learn?"

Nourse will host a public informational meeting tomorrow evening at 7 at Lebanon College to explain the academy's mission.

The school, which would tentatively be called the Ledyard Charter Academy - after John Ledyard, an 18th-century Dartmouth student who withdrew from the college to engage in his own experiential learning - would offer students a tailored curriculum, community internships and a personal advisory committee made up of peers and faculty members. Students would take the same federally mandated tests as their peers, have to meet all the state requirements for graduation and have the same post-secondary options available to them, Nourse said.

The project has the backing of Lebanon Superintendent Mike Harris. Lebanon School Board members have also expressed support, although they have not had a formal vote.

"This can be a doorway that we can use to reach students," said Barry Schuster, chairman of the board.

Charter schools are public schools that generally offer a more focused mission and more flexibility than regular schools. While they can be started and paid for by local districts, all the charter schools established so far in New Hampshire have been approved by the state Board of Education and financed through the state.

Once the state board approves a charter school, Education Department officials allocate money - an average of $500,000 over three years - for startup costs such as buying or renting a building, purchasing equipment and hiring staff. The state also provides $3,600 a year per pupil, officials say. Local districts can choose to allocate additional money, but so far none has.

About 1.1 million children attend the nation's 3,635 charter schools, according the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools's website. In New Hampshire, there are eight charter schools, with three more slated to open this year. They serve students at risk of dropping out, as well as those interested in pursing a business career and even those who want to go into the equestrian field.

If the Lebanon proposal receives state approval and funding (most charters are initially authorized for three to five years), the academy could open in September, with classes possibly held in rented rooms at Lebanon College or Granite State College. The charter academy would have its own board of directors. Nourse said the academy's first-year budget is projected to be $485,000.

Ledyard Charter Academy would initially serve 40 ninth- and 10th-graders, with a goal of serving 100 students in grades nine to 12 within a few years. It would be open to any student eligible to attend Lebanon High School, including Plainfield and Grantham residents, with slots available on a first-come, first-serve basis.

Nourse said he hopes the school will eventually be a model for how all students, including the nearly 800 at the high school, are educated in the future. He calls charter schools the research-and-development branch of public education.

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