Andrea Macko is reporting for Porcupine Soup the nonprofit organization, Catskill Wheelhouse, is poised to launch its new Community School in September 2021. The school will offer a 2s program for toddlers, preschool program for three- and four-year-olds, and an elementary program for students in kindergarten through 5th grade. Full-day programming will run from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., Monday to Friday. The launch of the school was initially planned for 2022, but Elementary School Director Alanna Navitski said the COVID pandemic “led many people to reflect on what is really important in education, and to think carefully about how they and their children are spending their days.” The Catskill Wheelhouse, a progressive school, was founded in 2015 as a parent cooperative preschool. A combination of factors, Navitski said, led them to Cairo for the location of the Community School. The school welcomes families of all racial, cultural, linguistic, religious, and ethnic backgrounds, of all gender expressions, sexual orientations, and family structures. “In terms of curriculum, we will be using New York State learning standards as a reference point for our curriculum development, but will address the topics in the learning standards through hands-on, integrated, project-based curriculum,” Navitski said. This fall, the Community School will be able to accommodate eight two-year-olds, 12 preschoolers, eight children in a K to 2 mixed-age group, and another eight in a mixed group of grades 3 to 5. “We have expansion plans in subsequent years, Navitski noted. Tuition is offered on a sliding scale. Read the full story at porcupine soup [dot] com.