A New High School Is Coming To Southington
- Philip Thibodeau
- Oct 7
- 4 min read
Starting sometime in 2026, Southington will have two high schools.
The home of the Blue Knights will of course remain the only public high school in town. But for the one-hundred or so teenagers who attend the privately-run Elite Preparatory Academy on the west side of town, Southington will be the place where they spend their formative years and grow into young adults.
The boarding school will make its home on the campus of the now-defunct Lincoln College of New England at 2279 Mt Vernon Road. Lincoln, which was founded in 1966 under the name Briarwood College, went out of business in 2018. Its facilities lay idle until Elite Prep purchased the property in June of this year.
The purchase marks an expansion for Elite Prep, which already has a campus in Hopatcong, New Jersey. Currently, the New Jersey campus is for grades 8-12. When the Southington campus opens, it will house the high school program, while grades 7 and 8 will continue to reside on the New Jersey campus.
Two things distinguish Elite Prep from other elite private high schools in central Connecticut. One is its curriculum, which, while offering a performing arts and liberal arts curriculum, is somewhat more weighted towards STEM and business. The other is its resolutely international focus: approximately 70% of Elite Prep's students come from outside the US, and call one of 15 different countries home.
On the day the Outsider visited Elite Prep's new campus, Head of Schools Yi Qian introduced us to two students: senior Man Sum Cheung, who goes by Sam, and sophomore Pere Pons. Eric Anderson, a psychology teacher and guidance counselor, also came up from New Jersey along with Jodie Shen, Associate Director of School Development.
Pons is from Mallorca, a Mediterranean island that is part of Spain. He said that what he loves most about the school is how it allows students to pursue their own interests, without imposing the same curriculum on everyone. The school has a "focus on what you want, not just what the school wants," said Pons. He currently has a passion for macroeconomics and environmental studies, and sees himself going into investment banking once he finishes college.
Pons said he is grateful for the close friendships he has made with other students at Elite Prep. He spoke in warm terms of pick-up games of baseball, or time spent fishing in Lake Hopatcong, whose meditative ambience was for him "like a spa."
Cheung comes from Hong Kong. A graduate of various International Baccalaureate schools, he heaped praise on the way EPA allows “talent to be maximized,” and encourages students to “break out of their siloes and think outside the box.” A good school, said Cheung, is one where a student can make good friends, but a truly "magnificent school" is one that helps students shape their own futures. According to Cheung, the international mixture at Elite Prep allows students to think globally about problems. His grand plan is to become both a doctor and a lawyer.
Cheung expressed his appreciation for EPA's extracurricular clubs and the school's commitment to supporting students who want new options, like a robotics club. He mentioned the collaboration among students who worked on a "gene editing team project," with each student contributing in ways that suited their interests and skills.
Anderson explained that the classes vary in size from 3 to 80 students, with an average size of about 15. (The faculty-student ratio is approximately 1:8.) Students are assigned to mixed-age classes based on the school's assessment of their current level of skill and their interests. One-on-one or small group tutoring is offered if a student needs remediation in a subject. Students take about seven classes a day - four on core subjects, the rest electives.
Each day contains "open periods" for project work. Qian said that every single student at Elite Prep pursues a project, usually working with others as part of a team. He described one group that developed an app for the music club, another that focused on art therapy, and another that worked on a "pond project," improving a pond on the Hopatcong campus.
Admission to Elite Prep, while selective, is not based on academic performance alone, according to Qian. The school strives to have a mix of interests, talents, and national origins in its classes.
International boarding school students often experience homesickness or culture shock. Pons described adapting to new foods and non-metric measurements like inches and miles. Cheung said that he especially missed Hong Kong's dim sum. To help students adjust to dorm life, some Elite Prep teachers live in the dorms, occasionally with their families, and serve as dorm parents, according to Shen.
While the students may present as professionals and wear business attire, they are still just kids. Pons raved about the pasta at the school cafeteria and described his delight at seeing deer on campus. The prospect of living down the street from ESPN’s world headquarters seemed to excite them less than the possibility of watching a black bear wander across Mt Vernon Road and stroll by their dorms.
Elite Prep's campus will be fully operational in fall of 2026. If renovations proceed on schedule, the school may hold a soft-launch with a limited number of students and staff in spring of 2026. Qian said that Southington's building department has been extremely helpful with timely approvals, and that Elite Prep hopes to become part of the local community. In New Jersey, the school has donated musical instruments to local public schools. It also has a $5 million scholarship fund to help cover the tuition cost for select area students, which is about $45,000 per year.
