A longtime educator hopes to open a new independent private school for grades 6 through 12 in Lower Manhattan in September 2004.

The Downtown School, as it is called, does not yet have a building, but Robert Golden, its founder and director, said that a site is being sought south of Canal Street.

Golden, who spent 24 years as a teacher and director of academic affairs at Riverdale Country School, said at a small informational meeting last month that the school aimed to avoid “the tyranny of curriculum” by cultivating students’ personal interests as well as teaching them traditional academic subjects.

Its two-pronged mission is “to give students the tools, the basic knowledge to succeed in the world, and give them the opportunity to explore who they are as individuals,” said Golden, who has a doctorate in psychology.

In addition to taking classes, students would work on independent projects in collaboration with mentors from the community.

“The social and emotional well-being of students is often neglected in other schools,” said Russ Schulman, a teacher and the former assistant-director of Manhattan Youth, who will be head of the middle school.

Golden said the school will start with 35 sixth graders and then expand by one grade each year, with the grades growing to about 50 students each. Applications for the first sixth grade will be accepted starting this fall.

Admission will be based on the Educational Records Bureau test, performance in previous schools, teacher recommendations, and interviews with children and parents.

Tuition will be about $18,000 a year, and Golden said he planned to offer partial scholarships to 30 percent of students, with funds that he hopes to raise from Downtown businesses.

He said that a real-estate developer and “philanthropist,” whom he declined to identify, had committed to acquire a permanent site for the school, either an existing building or a property on which he would build. But the school will probably use a temporary site—Golden hopes to find a 5,000- to 10,000-square-foot space by the fall—for one or two years.

Downtown will also soon have the public Millennium High School, now in its first year and slated to move to Broad Street in September (see story page 10).

For more information on The Downtown School, including curriculum details, go to www.nycdowntownschool.org or call 212-330-7452.