School districts in towns and regions facing long-term demographic and financial challenges are under intense

pressure to make difficult decisions so that they may continue to provide a quality education and enhance the vitality of the communities they serve. Such decisions may address: funding sources, education and non-education expenditures, facility utilization and community engagement. A recent engagement with Massachusetts towns by the Collins Center for Public Management has generated a case study in small-town school district revitalization. In this talk I will present results of community conversations that have enabled analysts, working with school district stakeholders, to propose a range of recommendations to secure the future of the district. These conversations have generated knowledge in the form of community values, performance indicators and constraints and considerations that will help the school district to develop a comprehensive revitalization strategy.