The 5-year Experimental Schools (ES) project in the South Umpqua, Oregon, school district was observed from a "participant observer" point of view. The South Umpqua district served four rural communities in which residents were adaptable to economic change, accepting of newcomers, and very involved in their communities as decision makers or informal workers. About 1970, four major changes in the area began to occur: the social system became "flat" (with increasing freedom of association and conduct); the communication system became eclectic; the sanction system changed; and the monetary values changed. School administrators, attempting to improve education, applied for and received the ES federal grant in the spring of 1972. The ensuing five years resulted in numerous unanticipated problems including teacher overloads, greatly strained community-school relations, and high faculty turnover. At the end of the fifth year the public perceived declining student achievement, increasing delinquency, rising budget levels, and arbitrary student treatment. On the other hand, the administrators perceived rising student accomplishment, stable delinquency, a declining budget, and systematized student treatment and achievement testing. The South Umpqua conflicts may have resulted in greater public involvement and greater democracy in the educational system. (SB)