Ulster BOCES Expands to iPark 87 to Meet Growing Demand

By Bond Brungard for Ulster Strong

LAKE KATRINE – iPark 87 will become the site of Ulster BOCES expansion for its Career and Technical Center, which serves Ulster County high school students, adult education and other programs beginning in 2025.

This will become the second campus for Ulster BOCES, and it will open in about 18 months with 90,000 sq. ft. of classroom space and 105,000 sq. ft. overall to help serve the eight component school districts in the county for 1,800 students.

And will also allow for expansion at the current Port Ewen campus for its growing special education programs known as the Center for Innovative Teaching & Learning. Five K-12 special education programs are currently available in Port Ewen, but the programs are near or at capacity or with some students on waitlists. Some students have to be transported to other counties because Ulster BOCES does not have the current space to serve them.

“The use of the Port Ewen campus will be an expanded special education, middle, high school campus to meet those growing demands,” said Jonah Schenker, Ulster BOCES superintendent. Currently there are 1,200 high schools students in the Career and Technical Center with a 600-student morning and afternoon split , even though the facility was designed for only 900 total students with a 450-student morning and afternoon split.

Once the iPark 87 expansion is completed, the Port Ewen facility will open in Sept. 2026 after a retro-fit for 60,000 sq. ft of classroom space, and 90,000 sq. ft. overall to serve expanding special education needs. The current overall physical needs for Ulster BOCES mission, on two campuses, will be completed within about 30 months.

But how does BOCES look into the future to serve the post-secondary workforce developments needs of its residents in two-year and four-year colleges such as SUNY New Paltz and SUNY Ulster, and the employment and vocational needs of business, government or the military? Schenker said this comes from listening to the needs of those in those fields seeking their future needs.

“We have to ask those questions of the folks who are in that field, in that landscape. What are the skills and disposition you really want to see when somebody walks through the thresholds of your employment, or your college?” Shenker said.

“We begin to back-map those skills in ways in which we can contribute to their preparation, and in partnership with them. So it isn’t an arbitrary look. There’s research that speaks to skill sets that are going to be the viable skill sets for preparing students for jobs that don’t even yet exist or a landscape that is uncertain or potentially unstable.”

And with the expansion of two campuses, Schenker said BOCES can make future foundational impacts for all students and residents in the county from the first days of their education and far beyond to the collegiate level.

“(It’s) really begin to co-author a vision for economic and workforce development from pre-school through higher education and beyond on behalf of Ulster County,” said Schenker.