About

The Derry Cooperative School District is a PreK-8 public district in Derry, NH steeped in history. In the early 1950s, with the completion of the Grinnell elementary and Gilbert H. Hood Jr. High, roughly eleven independent school districts that dotted the community were consolidated into the Derry Cooperative School District.

Growth in the 1960s and 1970s prompted residents of Derry to build two more elementary buildings, Derry Village and South Range. In the 1980s East Derry Memorial was added to the district, and in the 1990s West Running Brook Middle was added to alleviate crowding at Gilbert H. Hood.

In the 2000s, Ernest P. Barka was built to replace the aging Floyd elementary built in 1917. High school students have their tuition paid by the town to Pinkerton Academy. Located in Derry, Pinkerton is one of the largest high schools in NH, serving students from several communities. Derry boasts two famous residents from the past. Poet Robert Frost who taught for a short while at Pinkerton Academy, and Astronaut Alan B. Shepard, the first American and second man in space.