Upward Bound High School

Upward Bound High School in Hartwick, New York was the first alternative education program in Otsego County, New York. Created by then English teacher and principal Mike Newell and Mark Rathbun, Upward Bound High school was first located in the basement of a Unitarian church in Oneonta, New York.

Created in the mid-1980s, Upward Bound High School strived to create an environment for "at-risk" high school students more conducive to learning than a traditional publicly run school. One strategy used by the school was the instituting of a maximum class size of eight students.

Though the school has ostensibly disappeared, the program still continues, with less of an eye toward individuality. After the move to Hartwick, Upward Bound students had their own campus and building.

Always a part of the Otsego-Northern-Catskills BOCES program, Upward Bound most recently joined the local occupational education center in their own wing of the facility. With this transformation, and more closely controlled operations by new BOCES management, much of the founding staff has been displaced.