Suggests cost-effective ways of operating small schools so that students will be offered the superior caliber of educational enrichment that is achieved only in uncrowded classroom settings. (Author/IRT)

Board members who want to keep educational quality high must define quality and then use the staff as a resource, reassess the educational program, and include teachers, administrators, and students in a continuing dialogue on the schools and how to improve them. (Author/IRT)

Three fundamental skills seem essential for board members in times of declining enrollments--decision-making, long-range planning, and marshalling support for the implementation of the long-range plan. (Author/IRT)

Although school enrollments are on the rise generally, some schools with declining enrollments must contend with staff reductions. Suggests six actions in the event of a reduction in force: (1) Keep the board informed, (2) discuss plans with the union, (3) respond to people's concerns, (4) inform the community, (5) get community leadership…

Suggests how to reduce school budgets in hard times by cutting personnel costs through leaving some teacher vacancies until September, using teacher aides in study halls, scheduling creatively, promoting early grduation, scaling back kindergarten, combining underenrolled grades, and hiring additional supervisors. Suggests administrative cost…

The superintendent of a school district lists his district's problems and goals. In the spring he will discuss the successes he had in achieving those goals. (IRT)

A six-step plan that helps manage school decline is presented. (DCS)

National survey responses show school boards' top concerns to be financial support for schools and declining enrollment. Concerns about collective bargaining and about management and leadership have dramatically increased over the previous year. The number of women and minorities on boards has declined. Board vs. public priorities are compared.…

Guidelines are offered for profitably disposing of surplus school property. Included are instructions for conducting building and site analyses and market studies. (MLF)

Smith Island in the Chesapeake Bay is actually a group of three islands: Ewell, Rhodes Point, and Tylerton. Dwindling enrollment jeopardizes the community's two schools that contain grades one through seven. The school board believes they can give the sixth and seventh graders at Ewell and Tylerton a better education on the mainland. (MLF)

Procedural burden-of-proof issues led Federal Circuit Courts to affirm changes in pupil assignment systems in Norfolk, Virginia, but reject changes in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. The Supreme Court's decision not to review the Virginia case leaves school boards and federal courts without guidance on questions raised by resegregation. (MLF)

It looks as if the U.S. might be in for a small but significant (for schools) rise in birth rates. (Author)

Analysis of problems faced by school systems with surplus schools due to declining enrollment has led to this list of suggestions on achieving flexibility in new building construction. (WD)