TVL schools considering consolidation

The Axtell, Bern, Summerfield school board (USD 488) is considering consolidation, but will not do so for the 2010-11 school year, according to a story in the Marysville Advocate. Because of state budget cuts and declining enrollment, the district is considering options but would not be able to make a deadline in order to accomplish a consolidation for the next school year.
The district, which includes Axtell High School and Bern High School, is considering options with the Sabetha, B&B and Nemaha Valley districts.
For comparison sake, USD 488 has about 95 students less than Barnes-Hanover-Linn, which is also a two high school district.
I suppose for the TVL, losing those two schools would still leave the league with 11 schools. However, I’ve also heard rumors of Wetmore wondering about their future, so who knows what the future holds.
(As a side note, there have been rumors about Belleville’s declining enrollment, but they have huge classes (50s) in their lower grades so after a short term drop, they should jump back up.)
Needless to say, I think there are schools around that are smaller than they should be and probably do need to talk about what their future holds. At some point, a small school might be good to have for the economic benefit of the community, but might start being a negative for the students’ education. Where that line is, I don’t know. But what are schools there for?