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Recently, a friend gave me a book, "Sketches of the History of Chautauque County" written by Emory F. Warren and published in 1846. It traces the earliest history of our county including the establishment of school districts. Each school constituted a district.
In 1835 the New York state Legislature passed a law to provide funding for books in school libraries around the state. "School District Libraries have thus become objects of profit and a just pride to all," wrote Mr. Warren. "The choicest productions in literature and science are placed in the hands of every person who has a taste for reading…."
Public education had become a priority in the new United States of America along with the building of courthouses and the establishment of new townships to provide for governance in the growing country. In Chautauqua County, "there were on the first day of July 1844, 315 school districts, in which, during the year preceding, there had been an average of eight and a half month's school in each."
That year, the author said that there were 18,272 individuals who attended school in the county. Today, in 2026, it has been estimated that we have 16, 912 students in the public schools of our county. Public education has been with us for a long time, and most of us have been a product of that system.
Of course, the way in which we organize our public schools has changed greatly. For the first four grades of elementary school, I was taught in one of those one-room schoolhouses on Garfield Road, Busti District #7. We had a wonderful teacher, Mrs. Kronmiller, and I still have great memories from those days. However, post-World War II America was changing, and education needed to change with it. One-room schoolhouses were gradually shut down and consolidated with larger districts. In fifth grade, I was transferred into the Jamestown School System and in 1958 graduated from Jamestown High School.
Today, the organization of our schools is again undergoing some transformation. Change is hard and takes time, but it is needed if we are to keep providing affordable education at a high academic level in our public schools. When school district enrollments get too small, it becomes difficult to provide the courses and options students need to succeed in today's world.
Yet, the goal still remains the same as it was in 1846. In the words of Mr. Warren, the "distinguishing characteristic of our Institutions, is most gratifying to the friends of popular education. The great mass of the people are imbibing sentiments which will make them wiser and better citizens…."
Today, the declining enrollment in our public schools is related primarily to the fact that fewer babies are being born. More and more couples are waiting until their 30's to get married and have kids. That means fewer kids in school.
In athletics, we have faced this reality by joining schools together in order to conduct some team sports.
The same approach is needed in confronting the challenges facing education itself so that our public schools can remain the pillar of strength that they have been since the founding of the country.
Rolland Kidder is a Stow resident.