Kinderhook (Ichabod Crane) Central School District is located in between the Catskill and

Berkshire mountains The Berkshires () are a highland geologic region located in the western parts of Massachusetts and northwest Connecticut. The term "Berkshires" is normally used by locals in reference to the portion of the Vermont-based Green Mountains that ex ...

and serves a population of 8,296 residents in northern

Columbia Columbia may refer to: * Columbia (personification), the historical female national personification of the United States, and a poetic name for America Places North America Natural features * Columbia Plateau, a geologic and geographic region in ...

and southern Rensselaer counties in

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

. The district is in a rural setting 26 miles southeast of New York's capital, Albany, 15 miles (24 km) northeast of

Hudson Hudson may refer to: People * Hudson (given name) * Hudson (surname) * Henry Hudson, English explorer * Hudson (footballer, born 1986), Hudson Fernando Tobias de Carvalho, Brazilian football right-back * Hudson (footballer, born 1988), Hudso ...

, and 120 miles north of New York City. The Ichabod Crane Central School District was formed in 1954, incorporating seven community schools into one centralized district. Currently there are three buildings, down from five after in 2012 the district closed down the elementary school of Martin H. Glynn and Martin Van Buren, the latter named after Van Buren, who made his home in Kinderhook, served as a New York state attorney general, vice president under Andrew Jackson, and as the eighth president of the United States. Glynn, raised in the village of

Valatie Valatie (; ) is a village with several waterfalls in Columbia County, New York, United States. The population was 1,819 at the 2010 census. The village is at the center of the town of Kinderhook on US 9. History Valatie was first named ''Pach ...

, served as a U.S. representative, as well as the governor of New York from 1913 to 1915. Ichabod Crane High School, located on U.S. Route 9 in the Town of Kinderhook, currently serves approximately 624 students in grades 9 - 12. Ichabod Crane Middle School houses approximately 410 students in grades 6 - 8. The Ichabod Crane Campus now serves all grades K-12. Kinderhook's original two elementary schools, Martin Van Buren (in the village of Kinderhook) and Martin H. Glynn (in the village of Valatie) have been deaccessioned by the school district: The Martin Van Buren School is no
Jack Shainman Gallery , The School
and the Martin H. Glynn School is now the Town Hall o
Kinderhook
and the Village Hall o
Valatie
The total district enrollment is approximately 2,191 students with a professional staff of 220 and support staff of 140.

In popular culture

Washington Irving lived in the Village of Kinderhook in 1809, where he wrote the satire, ' A History of New York'. Later, he wrote the short stories Rip Van Winkle and The Legend of Sleepy Hollow which take place regionally. The Kinderhook school district is named "Ichabod Crane".http://alloveralbany.com/archive/2009/08/03/they-came-from-the-capital-region They came from the capital region for the Irving character,

Ichabod Crane Ichabod Crane is a fictional character and the protagonist in Washington Irving's short story "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow." Crane is portrayed, in the original work, as well as in most adaptations, as a tall, lanky individual with a scarecro ...

, which was based on the original Kinderhook schoolmaster named Jesse Merwin. Irving and Merwin became friends in Kinderhook, where they boarded together at the Van Ness home, and the two friends continued a pen-pal correspondence for thirty years. The Columbia County Historical Society (New York) owns the original Kinderhook Schoolhouse named after the Irving character based on Merwin, the town's first schoolteacher.

References

External links

Official Website
{{Authority control Education in Columbia County, New York Education in Rensselaer County, New York School districts in New York (state) School districts established in 1954