June 2003
Contact: Holly Brooker
(845) 255-1450 xt.1301

For more than 50 years, Ulster BOCES has been Ulster County’s partner in education, partner in workforce development, and partner in community. Recently, over 50 local community members, business leaders, and elected officials turned out for a discussion at the Ulster BOCES Career & Technical Center and Center for Alternative Education in Port Ewen. The forum highlighted the many ways Ulster BOCES impacts the local community.

Among those who addressed the audience were Glenn Decker, Commissioner of Social Services; Len Cane, Executive Director of Ulster County Chamber of Commerce; Andrea Park, Executive Director of the YWCA; and Francoise Dunefsky, Administrative Director of Organizational Development at Kingston Hospital. Several special, alternative, and career & technical education students and graduates, as well as parents, also shared the impact that Ulster BOCES has had on their lives.

Park, who works closely with Ulster BOCES to bring parent education, parent literacy training, and early education training to the community, said, “It is so important to keep BOCES in our family/community. Ulster BOCES brings essential services to our community.” Dunefsky, who said that the Kingston Hospital is a large employer of Ulster BOCES graduates, agreed. “Our partnership with Ulster BOCES is invaluable. Since Ulster BOCES supports hospitals with the training of the healthcare workforce, their services are so vital to us. More importantly, they are invaluable to the community because one day we each may be a patient at either Kingston or Benedictine Hospitals.

Ulster BOCES and local school districts collaborate to provide educational opportunities to students that otherwise would not be possible. High-quality, cost-effective educational programs have been initiated to help students explore career options, support the special needs of students with disabilities, give adults within the community a chance to complete their education or to improve their employability skills, help students meet rising standards, and assist schools with meeting demands of technology integration and operations management. In addition, by securing millions upon millions of dollars in grant funds each year, the contributions for enrichment that Ulster BOCES programs have made to the Ulster County community are countless.