page_title: Brunswick (Brittonkill) Central School District
section_title: Pre-centralization
hierarchical_section_title: Brunswick (Brittonkill) Central School District / History / Pre-centralization
caption_attribution_description: English: Map of the town of Brunswick, New York, United States in 1876 featuring school district boundaries, roads, hamlet names, and names of lot owners
context_page_description: Brunswick (Brittonkill) Central School District is a rural fringe central school district located east of the city of Troy whose main campus resides in the town of Brunswick in Rensselaer County, New York, United States. The district has two operating school buildings: Tamarac Elementary School and Tamarac Secondary School. The district is a member of the Rensselaer-Columbia-Greene Board of Cooperative Educational Services, known as Questar III.
  The district was created upon the centralization of fourteen smaller districts in Brunswick, Pittstown, Grafton, and Poestenkill in 1956 and the high school opened in 1958. The first class graduated in 1960. The district had a combined student body of 1363 during the 2007-2008 school year.
context_section_description: Upon the creation of the government of the Town of Brunswick in April 1807, three commissioners of schools were appointed. Their tasks were to develop schools within the town and offer funding using the Common School Fund, which the New York Legislature had set up in 1805 to help cover the costs of public education. In 1812, the Legislature developed a school district system in which each district was self-governing. These districts were typically small by necessity, so that students could walk or ride to school in a reasonable time period each day.
  At the time, public schools were funded by a combination of population-based state reimbursement, taxes, and tuition paid by parents. In 1867, tuition was abolished, making public education free to all. At that time, attending school was voluntary, but by 1874, it became mandatory for students aged 8 to 14. Enforcement was sometimes difficult though, especially considering the agricultural economy that the area depended upon at the time.
  By 1945, ten districts in Brunswick had a student population of 313 between first and ninth grades. Due to the added expenses of small districts (in an era becoming increasingly dominated by the automobile) and sometimes crumbling school facilities, the idea of consolidating smaller districts into one larger district (centralization) became a legitimate issue. By 1953, fourteen districts in Brunswick, Grafton, Pittstown, and Poestenkill were proposed for centralization. Eight of the districts were serviced by one-room schoolhouses with no running water.
caption: Map of Brunswick featuring school district boundaries in 1876
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