The Cooperstown Public School District is composed of 268.25 sections of land consisting of land from all or parts of 11 townships from both Griggs and Steele counties. Maximum distance from east to west is 21 miles and from north to south 22 miles. The 1981 taxable valuation has been set at $3,171,767.00. As the rural population has decreased in the State of North Dakota, evidence of that same trend in this school district is brought out by the facts that in the early 1960's there were nine school buses and two station wagons on rural routes while only five school buses are now needed.
According to census and enrollment figures the school population should remain fairly stable at between 350 and 400 students in the next ten years, but the number in high school may drop to about 110 students at the low point when the present seventh grade students are seniors in high school.
Full-time kindergarten became a part of the regular school program during the 1981-82 school year. Thirty-four children are divided into two sections, with the students attending every other day. This program adds to the six-week program that has been in operation for a number of years.
In addition to the regular elementary program, the Cooperstown elementary students have several special opportunities. Special help is provided for students who need it in reading and mathematics through a specially trained person, who provides small group and individualized help. The Cooperstown District belongs to the G-S-T (Griggs-Steele-Trail) special education consortium. Through this organization, specialists are provided to help students who have learning disabilities, speech and hearing problems, physical disabilities and other special problems. A specialist is also provided to work with gifted students from the three-county area.
School lunches are still provided for the school system at the elementary building. Inflation and reduced surplus commodities have forced lunch prices to 75 a meal for students. Despite the increased cost, about 235 students have their noon meal at school.
About 210 students from grades K-6 attend classes in the elementary building under the guidance of ten regular classroom teachers. The 180 people from grades 7-12 attend the high school building, which was constructed in the early 1960's. There are course offerings at this school in ten distinct departments: art, business, English, German, homemaking, industrial arts, mathematics, music, science, and social studies. More than 50 different classes were offered in these areas during the 1981-82 school year.
The high school department belongs to the Sheyenne Valley Multidistrict Vocational Center where juniors and seniors may select courses of a vocational nature in auto mechanics, construction, nurse’s aide, vocational office practice, or welding. Students from North Central of Barnes, Hannaford, Glenfield-Sutton-McHenry, McVille, Aneta, and Binford come to Cooperstown to participate. Students have an opportunity to work with five microcomputers and interest has been high in that area for three or four years.
Schools at Cooperstown are governed by an elected school board. Four members of the school board are elected from particular rural areas and the other member from the City of Cooperstown. Present school board members are:
| Frank Pfeifer | Chairman |
| Eugenia Frigaard | Vice-Chairman |
| Casper Aarestad, Jr. | |
| Keven Lunde | |
| Bebe McCardle | |
| Rick Larson | Secretary-Treasurer |
Victor E. Burchill, Ed. D Superintendent of Schools
Source: Cooperstown, North Dakota 1882-1982 Centennial page 64