The purpose of this essay is twofold. First, it is intended to communicate the authors' sense of the context in which the schools will be operating over the next 10 or 12 years and how this context differs from that of the past dozen years. Second, this analysis presents two scenarios for the schools' larger community roles in the next 10 years. One of these scenarios deals with growing communities; the other deals with communities experiencing decline. The essay concludes with a more general ranking of the possible community roles that the schools can fill. An appendix provides additional information on the major factors influencing school enrollment trends. (Author)