Based on case studies of the impact of declining enrollments during the 1976-77 school year in each of 9 rural Illinois school districts, this paper addresses the following: enrollment decline in smaller cities across the nation, with particular emphasis on Illinois; demographic characteristics of the east central region of Illinois, with particular emphasis on declining student enrollment; the process of small school district maramus in east central Illinois and the linkage between this process and small community politics; and one way of interpreting the consolidation of smaller school districts. The maramus process (a concept meaning a wasting away) is outlined as follows: administrative recognition of declining enrollment; initial search behavior by administrators; administrative generation of policy alternatives; superintendent/school board discussion; school board controlled public discussion; school board meeting; school board decision; continued declining enrollments; superintendent/board discussions about alternatives; public acrimony over the closing of a school and consolidation with another district; school board meeting to close the school and consolidate the district. This paper suggests, then, a generalized model of events in the districts examined; wherein, small community politics plays an important role in the determination of community problem solving. (JC)