OCM BOCES to open Cortland tech high school in Fall 2016

CORTLAND, N.Y. — The Onondaga-Cortland-Madison Board of Cooperative Educational Services (OCM BOCES) will open a new tech high school in Cortland in September 2016.

OCM BOCES will locate the new school, which does not yet have a name, at 240 Port Watson St. in Cortland, the organization said in a news release issued Monday.

The school will serve area high-school students in grades 9 through 12.

It will provide a learning environment that aims to improve students’ college and career readiness through “project-based learning, collaborative workspace and technology,” OCM BOCES said.

The school will also serve to equip teachers with resources that “facilitate the creation of engaging curriculums with relevance to the needs of the 21st century,” it added.

“Not only will this be a school for students, but it will also be a place where teachers from all OCM BOCES districts will come to learn about project-based learning and innovative practices,” J. Francis Manning, OCM BOCES superintendent, said in the news release.

This new school will join Innovation Tech High School, which OCM BOCES opened in the town of Clay last fall, as the “first and only two” new tech schools in Central New York, the organization said.

More than 150 new tech schools operate in 29 states across the country, it added.

Manning recently invited local school-district leaders and local-business artners to the OCM BOCES Charles H. McEvoy campus in Cortland to discuss the Central New York “regional vision for college, career and citizenship readiness.”

That vision represents a “steadfast commitment to preparing students for their future as lifelong learners, as skilled workers or entrepreneurs, and as global citizens,” according to the OCM BOCES news release.