Chatham Central School District is located at 50 Woodbridge Avenue Chatham, NY. This school district serves the community of Chatham for its education needs for grades K through 12 in Columbia County, New York. There are three school buildings. The Mary E. Dardess Elementary School serves grades K-4, Chatham Middle School serves grades 5-8, and Chatham High School serves grades 9-12. In addition, our school district owns and operates the venerable Chatham Public Library, an original Andrew Carnegie gift, which offers a full range of modern library services to the community.

The district Curriculums at Elementary and Middle Schools has been fully updated to align with New York State Learning Standards, and our students consistently surpass State averages in performance on the many new State assessments. At Chatham High School students can choose from a full range of courses, including career and technical offerings as well as Advanced Placement and university-level courses.

The Town of Chatham has a village also called Chatham on its south town line. The town is at the north border of Columbia County and its largest town in the County. Education has been around in this county since the 1790s with the construction of Riders Mills Schoolhouse. It is one of our nation’s oldest public school buildings still in existence. It was also one of America’s last single-room schoolhouses in operation; classes were held every school year until its closing in 1953. It was acquired by the Riders Mills Historical Association in 1966 and is listed on both the State and National Registry of Historic Sites.