In fact, she has staked her professional reputation on it. Her public school is the smallest in New York, with 69 students from prekindergarten through 12th grade. The two-story brick schoolhouse was built for 400 children in 1948, when a titanium and magnetite mine was operating nearby. After the mine closed about a decade ago, the student body dwindled, and the state pressured the town to shut the school. That forced Kearns to figure out how to make Newcomb Central a special place, a school no one would want to shutter.
Classrooms are empty because many of the kids are off in the woods.
The kindergarten class is at the town's little nature center down the road. But nothing beats an overnight expedition. And he won't soon forget. A network of children, teachers, and conservation professionals dedicated to protecting endangered species.