For decades, people questioned the sense of having two school districts, each with its own superintendent, central office and high school, operating in the same small town of The Dalles on the banks of the Columbia River in north-central Oregon. But election campaigns to consolidate repeatedly failed because each community had strong emotional…

The list of issues confronting education leaders today seems to be growing longer, with school wellness being pushed to the forefront by the surge in childhood obesity rates. Whether walking the halls of the schools or the local shopping mall, it is easy to see why society needs to adopt healthier lifestyles. That is why more community leaders,…

Several New England states have been rethinking the system whereby small towns make the key decisions about school budgets and staffing under the banner of local control. Maine already has mandated a reduction in the number of local school districts from 290 to 80, allowing localities to vote on the larger districts. This consolidation, unpopular…