The Rural School and Community Development Project encourages South Dakota rural schools to take roles in local economic planning. This booklet profiles 3 of the project's 12 pilot schools: Takini School on the Cheyenne River Indian Reservation, Estelline, and Belle Fourche. The three communities differ greatly in their histories, lifestyles, economic bases, and expectations. The specific methods of developing school-community alliances in these three cases are less important than the spirit of experimentation behind the methods. In Estelline, the community has become a classroom. With encouragement of the local development corporation, a new elective high school class--Rural Economics--allows students to learn about local businesses and their hometown and encourages student entrepreneurship. Takini--a K-12 reservation school planned by federal bureaucrats--was sited equidistant from three towns and has no town of its own. Nevertheless, with parent and tribal support, the school plans to build an auxiliary building surrounding an arena, to be used for community rodeos and powwows. Classrooms will have "storefront" openings onto the arena, which students can use for running food concessions and selling items such as horse halters. In Belle Fourche, a "classroom without walls" approach has led to high school students surveying the local business climate, mapping the town for the 1990 census, writing for the local paper and radio station, and completing requirements for a town listing in the governor's directory for national business recruitment. (SV)