On behalf of the Cooperstown Youth Baseball Board of Directors, I want to say thanks. Thanks to the Winter Carnival Committee for allowing us the opportunity. Thanks to Brian Wrubleski for his help. Thanks to Doubleday Cafe for its support. Thanks to Ginsberg’s Foods for its kind contributions. Thanks to Allen Whiteman and Coca Cola and Schneider’s Bakery. Special thanks to our Pie Booth celebrities, Teresa Gorman, Dave Bertram, Gary Kuch, John Lambert, Buddy Lippitt, Sharky Nagelschmidt, and Scott Whiteman. Thanks to our community for your continued support. A special thank you to our families who sacrifice for us and who allow us our commitment to our community and your children. And finally, my personal thanks to the board, Tim Haney, Noel Clinton, Linda Flynn, Mark Davine, Mary Bonderoff, Jen Taylor, Mike Donnelly, Kai Mebust, Bob Hall, Brad Feik, and David Pearlman. This is dedicated, hard working group of people committed to giving their best for our children.

David Borgstrom

President

Cooperstown Youth Baseball

Brookwood filling a void

I was stunned to read that Mr. Rheinhardt finds the Cooperstown Central enrollment decline alarming. Paradoxically, Brookwood School’s elementary enrollment is predictably climbing.

Brookwood is filling a void. It provides a pleasant learning environment amidst beautiful surroundings. Our public school cannot currently offer this. Consequently, people who have had a good experience with the Montessori system in preschool keep their children in Toddsville for kindergarten and the elementary grades 1 through 6.

The tariff for this parental decision is about $5,000 per child. This argues that school consumers do not feel the tax burden is excessive, but rather that the public schools are somewhat uninspiring. Declining enrollment is certainly not due to our excellent and enthusiastic Cooperstown teachers. An administration that believes in a vision of greatness and celebrates accomplishment is also hard to fault.

Before our family moved to Cooperstown in 2000, both our children attended private Montessori elementary schools. It was good but quite expensive. This is not intended to denigrate the quality of a Brookwood or Montessori education. We were living in Indiana (the 48th or 49th state annually in public education). Here in New York, with a public school that had terrific graduation rates, good standardized test scores, small classes and solid athletic and extracurricular opportunities, we felt that spending money on private schools was unnecessary. This has proved correct in the elementary grades as well as the middle and high school. Cooperstown Central School provides our daughters with a great education, at an annual per pupil cost of $11,560. Similar-sized schools costs are higher: Milford at $14,206, Cherry Valley at $14,578, and Little Falls at $13,853. New York schools overall: $13,826. [an error occurred while processing this directive]