Even before a single student had signed up for High Tech High School, the founders of the new charter school on San Diego Bay knew they did not want that first school to be their last. They wanted to affect more children. To that end, Larry G. Rosenstock, the founding principal of the highly regarded 5-year-old school, and other leaders of the 450-student school worked with interested groups to start new schools around the country based on their distinctive, small-school design. Yet after watching some schools in the far-flung network stray from the design's core principles, in 2004, they changed course and formed a nonprofit "charter-management organization" (CMO). In opting to take the CMO route, High Tech High became part of a small, but growing tribe of charter school pioneers who are trying to create not just one high-performing school, but whole systems of them from scratch. NewSchools Venture Funds defines CMOs as "centrally managed systems of charter schools that leverage the values of alignment, accountability, autonomy, and economies of scale to deliver superior educational opportunities to the students they serve." By filling some of the roles played by central offices for district-run public schools, proponents say, CMOs can soften some of the pain of starting new schools and running them without outside support. Five years after opening High Tech High, Mr. Rosenstock and his colleagues will run six schools in San Diego on the grounds of a former naval training center, and a seventh one in Redwood City. Plans call for swelling to two dozen schools over the next five or six years. (Contains 1 table.)