The UC Davis Medical Center and real estate developer Buzz Oates each will donate $500,000 to Sacramento High School, giving the nascent charter school a major boost as organizers race to hire staff, recruit students and design a curriculum by fall.

Officials also announced Monday that Margaret Fortune, who has spearheaded the effort to revamp Sac High, will be superintendent of St. HOPE Public Schools, which will oversee the high school and other charter schools.

A president and four principals who will take over Sac High also were selected. The charter school will open its doors Sept. 2.

"We just can't say enough about how exciting these last seven months have been ... and how excited we are for the future of Sac High," Kevin Johnson, the ex-basketball star and CEO of the nonprofit St. HOPE Corp., said during a news conference at Oak Park's Guild Theater. St. HOPE seeks to revitalize the Oak Park neighborhood and will oversee two new charter schools, including Sac High.

Johnson's push to redesign his alma mater upset some, thrilled others and split allegiances in the Sac High community. But he pledged to push ahead in the face of the grim academic achievement at the school, where only 46 percent of the original class graduated in 2002, he said.

"That's dismal," Johnson said. "There's a crisis."

The medical center's donation will be given over five years to buy necessary equipment and help develop the School of Health, one of six theme-based academies at the new school. The hospital also will have a role in developing curriculum, providing student mentors and internships, and training teachers.

It hopes to create a diverse pool of "well-educated and trained students with an interest in health care careers," said Dr. Shelton Duruisseau, an associate director at the medical center, especially because of the nationwide shortage of nurses, pharmacists and qualified medical and laboratory technicians.

St. HOPE says it plans to announce similar corporate or community partnerships for each of the campus' six small schools.

Oates, who graduated with Sac High's class of 1941, made the gift in memory of friend and classmate Fred Anderson, the late founder of Pacific Coast Builders. Oates' first business, a key shop on 35th Street, was in Oak Park and he challenged all Sac High graduates to "give something back to their school and the Oak Park community."

The donation is unrestricted and has not been earmarked for specific use, school officials said.

St. HOPE previously secured a grant of up to $3 million from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and Johnson pledged to continue seeking the resources necessary to improve student achievement at Sac High.

Fortune will head St. HOPE Public Schools, which, she said, seeks to establish and oversee a group of charter schools to provide a quality education to underserved children. Public School 7, a K-4 charter school, is scheduled to open in September.

Fortune, a graduate of UC Berkeley and Harvard's Kennedy School of Government, is a former assistant secretary for education and chair of the California Commission on Teacher Credentialing. Since December, she has overseen the Sac High endeavor.

Fortune announced they are ahead of schedule, having enrolled 1,100 students so far and fielded 300 teacher applications for about 80 positions. A handful have been selected, and the staff will be in place by August to begin teacher training, she said.

Christine Minero, principal of Roseville's Woodcreek High School, was named president of the charter high and will oversee the six small schools.

Minero had led Woodcreek High since it opened in 1994 and was hailed as a natural choice to lead a new school.

"We will restructure, reinvent, and find a new way to deliver an education to kids that will allow them to meet their dreams," said Minero, who has 32 years of education experience.

Some teachers and parents were angered when her contract wasn't renewed for 2003-04. Woodcreek High was named a California Distinguished School in 2001.

Four of the six principals who will work with her are:

* David Hunt, principal of Hiram Johnson West Campus, a magnet high school in the Sacramento City Unified School District. Hunt will head the School of Journalism.

* Tom Rutten, former principal of Christian Brothers High School. He will lead the School of Public Service.

* Allen Young, an English and journalism teacher at Sacramento High School, will lead the School of the Arts.

* Mari Harris, a former teacher and administrator in Sacramento City Unified schools, will head the School of Health.

The remaining positions are for the School of Business and the School of Math, Engineering and Science. Each school will enroll roughly 300 students and have its own curriculum and staff.

The principals' salaries are "competitive," said Fortune, ranging from $70,000 to $90,000. Salaries won't be finalized until student enrollment ends in September. Minero's salary will be between $80,000 and $100,000 -- she earned about $112,000 annually at Woodcreek. Fortune's salary will be between $90,000 and $125,000.

The school's conversion by a divided school board caused pickets, recall threats, rivaling charter proposals and a lawsuit.

A group of teachers and parents joined the state and local teacher unions in a suit that seeks to stop the district and St. HOPE through an injunction. In April, a judge declined to grant a temporary restraining order. A hearing is scheduled for Sacramento Superior Court on June 13.