Our History
1978 | School Founded by Peter and Marsha Comstock
The Homestead School was founded on a 200-year old, 85-acre homestead of the locally prominent McKenzie family. The first structure at the Homestead was built by Peter Comstock’s great-grandfather around 1870.
Peter and Marsha settled there permanently in 1975 and started the school in 1978. Not one summer passed without a major building expansion project — numerous additions, a big barn, stonewalls, and eventually four new educational structures.
Not one summer passed without a major building expansion project — numerous additions, a big barn, stonewalls, and eventually four new educational structures.
Homestead School Expands
Marsha Comstock combined her love of art with her passion for conservation and partnered Homestead students with SaveNature.org. Marsha educated the students about the beauty and threats to the rainforest, and pioneered the Rainforest Project, a program in which the students create specific works of art to be sold. The proceeds of those pieces are used to buy acreage of rainforest to be preserved through SaveNature.org. Since the inception of the program, Homestead families have raised $150,650 toward the preservation of 1,386.5 acres of rainforest in Costa Rica, Belize, Guatemala, Brazil, and Bolivia.
1988 | Rainforest Project Begins
After decades of offering early childhood and lower elementary education, Homestead fulfilled a long-time dream of offering grades 4 to 6 in 2005, building an extension on the tennis court building to house the program.
2005 | Upper Elementary Added
Working within the concentric circles of class, school, local community, and global family, each class begins doing at least one service project annually. Projects range from reading buddies across classes to raising money for animal shelters, to food and money collection for local food pantries, to offering micro-loans to women in developing countries.
2010 | Annual Service Projects Begin
As the school grew to include upper grades and the curriculum began to address issues with global energy consumption and production, Homestead students became passionate about the institution of solar panels. The Upper Elementary class of 2012 designed reusable water bottles, T-shirts, and hoodies focused on green energy and raised $10,000 to begin the installation. By the end of the summer of 2012, solar panels were installed to cover a significant portion of Homestead’s electrical energy usage.
2012 | Homestead Goes Solar
2015 | Middle School Added
Ten years after opening our upper elementary, we opened our middle school (grades seven to eight) in 2015. Since then, we have successfully graduated several classes culminating in the Hero’s Journey and the Micro Business Project.
2016 | Homestead Receives Sullivan Renaissance Award
In 2016, the Homestead School received the Sullivan Renaissance Earth Award for our commitment to environmental stewardship through education and sustainable practices.
2017 | Permaculture Curriculum is Introduced
In 2017, Homestead began to develop a permaculture curriculum, beginning with planting fruit and nut trees, keeping honey bees, and developing a plan for a biodome.
In 2018, we constructed our 1,500 square foot tropical geodesic dome. Middle School students designed and planted the tropical food forest.
2019 | Homestead Climate Lab is Established
The Climate Lab was founded through the partnership of Catskill Mountainkeeper, The Center for Discovery, and Friends of the Homestead School in honor of the Homestead’s 40th anniversary and it’s many years of environmental education, advocacy, and fundraising. The generous $25,000 grant is available to students and staff of the Homestead School to advance learning in the areas of environmental and climate education.
2020 | COVID-19 Relief Efforts for Local Communities
Within weeks of COVID striking New York City, Friends of the Homestead School funded a PPE Project led by Jack Comstock through which over 2,000 Face Shields were produced and distributed to healthcare workers locally and in New York City when PPE was scarce.
2020 | Homestead expands to Middle and High School as Homestead Collaborative College High School (CCHS)
In December of 2020, the Homestead School announced its partnership with SUNY Sullivan to create a secondary education program in Hurleyville, NY that would allow a student to attend Homestead from age 3 through 18 and graduate Homestead School with a High School diploma and an Associate Degree.
2021 | Homestead becomes a Non-Profit Organization
After providing over 40 years of exceptional education, Homestead School receives it’s 501(c)(3) status in June 2021.
June 2025 | CCHS Graduates its 1st Cohort of 12th Graders and College Associate Degree holders
Homestead CCHS graduates its first cohort of 12th graders in a custom student-designed ceremony at SUNY Sullivan’s Seelig Theater. In addition to receiving their High School diploma, many of our 12th graders received Associate Degrees in their chosen disciplines from our partner SUNY Sullivan.