1 Golden Bomber Dr.
Ilion, NY 13357
Phone: 315.894.9934
Fax: 315.894.2716
Superintendent
Historical origins of New York State school boards
1638: First NYS schoolmaster comes from Holland to take charge of a school in the new Dutch colony of New Amsterdam.
1784: The NYS Legislature creates the Regents of the University of the State of NY.
1790's and early 1800's: NYS passes laws establishing school districts and empowering its citizens to elect school boards to levy school taxes.
1812: Statute declares that common school districts be formed.
1822: Chapter 197 authorizes the Trustees of the Academy to act as trustees of the Goshen School District in Orange County.
1837: Buffalo establishes the first American superintendency.
1844: Start of the first state normal (teacher education) school in Albany.
1850's and 1860's: Establishment of state-supervised public high schools and their gradual replacement of local academies.
1853: General act passed providing for the combination of the academy and common schools and for the election of boards of education for their management. The Warsaw School District is the first to apply for and gain admission to the Board of Education of Union Free Schools.
1854: Legislative establishment of a State Department of Public Instruction with a superintendent elected by the legislature.
1867: Abolition of tuition and a shift to full tax support for public schools.
1880's: Growth of educational administration as an acknowledged profession and struggle for leadership between school boards and superintendents.
1904: Unification Act placing all education in NY under the Board of Regents operating through the first Commissioner of Education, Andrew S. Draper, and the State Education Department.
1913: The State Scholarship Act passed to issue scholarships for use in approved NYS colleges and universities.
1916: Educator Elwood Cubberly argues for smaller school boards, elected at-large and for longer terms.
1927: Educator George Counts criticizes boards for not being sufficiently representative.
1933: Educator Jesse Newlon articulates the need to separate the board's functions from the administrators', with the board as a legislature representing the people and the superintendent as their executive.
