HURLEYVILLE –– SUNY Sullivan President Jay Quaintance, in opening remarks at Friday’s ribbon cutting and reception for the new Homestead | SUNY Sullivan Collaborative College High School (CCHS) at 202 Main Street in Hurleyville, explained that early colleges, much like the Montessori movement, share the principle that quality educational opportunities need to be provided to help students become the best versions of themselves.

The new partnership between SUNY Sullivan and The Homestead School seeks to continue to advance that principle, which Quaintance added, “Doesn’t always mean fitting into traditional educational models.”

Quaintance said that’s something The Center For Discovery (TCFD) also understands and provides, as he thanked them for offering the building [to CCHS] that was recently used for their Technology Hub and Incubator (THINC) Lab, which is moving to Rock Hill.

CCHS, Homestead School’s new Senior High program, will build upon the advanced studies and hands-on learning of their Montessori K-9 school, and in collaboration with SUNY Sullivan, will offer college courses for ninth grade students beginning this fall.

Early college programs are something Quaintance is very familiar with, as he helped to start one of the first in the state in Schenectady. Afterwards, he served on the Bard Early College Network Advisory Board, where he helped them open nine schools in five states.

Today, he said, the early college movement is mature, with over 70 across the state.

Quaintance said CCHS will build on the Montessori and early college movements, by providing experiential learning environments that address individual students’ interests and learning styles and by developing pathways for them to explore more advanced study in a college environment.

“Community involvement is key,” Quaintance added. “CCHS students will be able to pursue questions that are meaningful and relevant to themselves and their communities. In addition to this facility, students will have hands-on opportunities to use our state-of-the-art labs and on-site organic farm to explore topics including the natural and health sciences, visual arts, and farm-to- table culinary adventures.”

Quaintance said education now more than ever needs to develop individuals who understand that a sustainable future requires practiced stewardship, meaningful partnerships, and collective wisdom. He said that CCHS seeks to model these ideals in their work and service.

“This venture, the latest addition to the Hurleyville constellation of pioneering businesses and institutions that are innovative, inclusive and truly demonstrate the positive power of human understanding, will become a testbed for new educational opportunities,” said Quaintance.

Also speaking at Friday’s event were CCHS Director Jack Comstock, SUNY Sullivan Board of Trustees Vice Chair and Center for Discovery President Dr. Theresa Hamlin, Town of Fallsburg Supervisor Steve Vegliante, NYS Assemblywoman Aileen Gunther and SUNY Chancellor Dr. Jim Malatras.

Comstock also expressed gratitude to TCFD for their generosity and “support for expanding the scope and reach of transformative education in Sullivan County.”

In his remarks, Comstock talked about how the world is calling for collaboration and creativity, and how educational institutions cannot delay in answering that call.

“This challenging work cannot be done in isolation,” said Comstock. “An authentic education at the high school level must be a partnership of students, families, teachers, community members, and organizations. For our students to gain competence, practical skill and knowledge, they must be actively engaged outside the walls of the classroom.”

Comstock said SUNY Sullivan is already doing this, and called them the perfect partner for bringing “this collaborative ethos” to the high school level. He added that Homestead intends for the partnership to be a reciprocal relationship, where there will be an abundance of chances to develop long-term projects that enrich the opportunities for not only CCHS students but the wider range of SUNY Sullivan students as well.

“We, of course, are just at the beginning of discovering [where] the limitless possibilities and directions that what we might call a living systems approach to education might take us,” said Comstock. “In fact, we haven’t really started until our students walk through these doors in early September. For now, we continue the exciting work of setting up an environment and approach to education that will support the widest range of learners and talents that our resources can possibly accommodate.”

Chancellor Malatras, the event’s final speaker, was complimentary of the overall collaborative effort that has resulted in CCHS.

“It’s not easy to build a school like this and to collaborate like this,” said Malatras. “Everybody says, let’s bring colleges and high schools together, let’s work together. Then you actually have to do it, and all sorts of rules have to be put in place, it’s tough to put faculty together and there’s competition. But this is a model for the state … it’s a proud moment in Sullivan County that you’re leading in a way that other people haven’t.”

To learn more about CCHS, call 845-856-6359, or send an email to info@homesteadeducation.org.