School closings can be made more acceptable to a community if a long-range plan for dealing with declining enrollments is developed that includes a statement of goals, process, criteria, and efforts to include public information and interaction. (Author/MLF)

The current decline in enrollment has had a significant impact on teachers, curriculum, community relations, administrators, and facilities of the public education system. The current cutback procedures of teacher reduction-in-force have fostered a predominantly white, largely middle-class, and definitely middle-aged teaching profession. With…