PHILADELPHIA (AP) – Calling all ninth-grade boys! Raise your hand if this school sounds like fun: wearing jackets and ties every day, staying until 5 p.m., learning Latin and – to top it all off – no girls.

Who’s in?

Turns out, about 270 boys. And 100 more are on a waiting list.

Boys’ Latin of Philadelphia, one of the city’s newer charter schools, began its second year on Wednesday, aiming to be an educational beacon in the financially and academically troubled district.

Because it’s a single-sex public school – one of four in the city – Boys’ Latin faced huge opposition and almost didn’t exist.

Critics contend it’s unfair for taxpayers to fund a prep school curriculum for boys only. Supporters say Boys’ Latin is desperately needed in a city where male academic achievement badly lags behind that of females.

The Women’s Law Project and the American Civil Liberties Union of Pennsylvania had opposed Hardy’s charter application based on its exclusion of girls.

It was initially rejected by Philadelphia school officials in January 2006, but was approved five months later after then-district CEO Paul Vallas called the gender achievement gap “a crisis.” Boys’ Latin opened in fall 2007.

New rules implemented by the U.S. Education Department in 2006 allow same-sex education whenever schools think it will expand the diversity of courses, improve students’ achievement or meet their individual needs.

But ACLU attorney Mary Catherine Roper said those regulations conflict with the Constitution and Title IX, a federal law banning sex discrimination in education. There are nonexclusionary ways to improve education, such as decreasing class sizes, she noted.

The 167,000-student Philadelphia district, which is under state supervision for poor performance, has tried to improve by establishing charter schools, hiring private companies and universities to manage schools, and offering single-sex education.

Results have been mixed. Three months ago, the district took six schools away from private and university managers for failure to improve sufficiently, including an all-boys high school.

Boys’ Latin, which opened in trailers with only ninth-graders, now teaches freshmen and sophomores in a renovated former Roman Catholic school. It will add a grade each year until it has grades nine through 12.