Fewer staff members in rural schools mean more jobs for those who work there.
Teachers might juggle more than one subject, and superintendents might be anything from grant writers to principals.
The Great Falls Tribune, in Great Falls, Mont., had an interesting take on this well-known phenomenon—the multiple roles facing rural student athletes.
In some small schools, one or two students can affect whether the school has a team, which has positive and negative ramifications. On the up side, students have more time to play, but they also might face peer pressure to join teams.
The story describes how the addition of two students to the small town of Augusta, Mont., meant the school could field a junior high basketball team.
The story quotes one of the boy’s mothers as saying, “If you’ve got two legs and are moving about, you can play.”