“Old School” The 8 Oldest Public School Districts in Upstate NY!

Talk about "old school!"  These are the oldest public school districts in Upstate New York.

Without giving away too much, you will find in this gallery that the oldest school district in Upstate (and the eighth oldest one in the entire Empire State) is in a small city of about 10,000 residents in Ontario County in the Finger Lakes region!

It is amazing to look at the DNA of some of these truly small school districts.  The majority of them can be found either in Central New York or, in fact, out in the Finger Lakes.  Some started out as all-boy "academies."  Some are in pretty much the same place, geographically, as they were when they started.  Most of them are in smallish, rural communities.  Some of them are very small (with one school on this list having a total school enrollment of around just 100 kids).  And some of them are the very definition of old school, including three that were founded in the 1700s!

When you read through this list of the oldest public schools in Upstate New York, try and imagine what these schools were like 200, or 225 years ago when they began.  Dirt roads, tiny classes, kids walking to school every day, maybe just one or two teachers to start, student chores (including drawing the day's drinking water from a well, and heating the building with a wood fire), having only limited classes consisting of reading, writing and arithmetic, and more.

Thinking about this is, well, quite an education.

Congratulations for these schools for showing real staying power in Upstate New York.