ABOUT THE COUNCIL The History of The Council The Council traces
its history back more than 130 years to 1883, when a group of 17
NYS school superintendents met in Syracuse to form the first
organization known as the New York State Council of School
Superintendents. It formed in response to deep and far reaching
changes in American life which marked the late nineteenth
century. At that time, there were some 10,000 public school
systems in New York State. Most of New York’s systems were small
schools led by “supervising principals” who, while chief school
officers, enjoyed the benefits of tenure and loosely reported to
the District Superintendent of Schools (now more commonly called
the BOCES Superintendent). However, The leaders of these
districts did not comprise the membership of The Council.
Instead the first members of The Council were District
Superintendents of Schools and the chief school officers of the
state’s small city school districts. The supervising principals
were later to be represented by the