I watched the situation in Flaxville. Not a pretty deal, at all. Folks there hated to face the fact that closing the school would kill the town. Truth is; it was already dead but a few of the board members were in severe denial. State ended up bribing the holdouts with a generous plan to fund turning the school into a community center. So now, the school is closed and the students accumulate a lot of seat time, riding the bus. In the case of Westby, P-Wood, and Med Lake, consolidating would make for some long bus rides and in the end, the trend of things would lead to P-Wood being absorbed into another in another generation.
Machinery isn't getting any smaller and farm size continues to grow. . .