When the Experimental Schools (ES) program began in 1972, schools in conservative and traditional River District, Wyoming, had just undergone a controversial consolidation. The ES program was perceived by new administrators as a source of necessary unity, useful outside help, and financial incentives. School trustees were "favorable but guarded" about involvement in federal programs. Having received a one-year planning grant, the administration eagerly worked with the community, but not with teachers or students, to develop a five part plan of educational change, involving career education, community participation, curriculum evaluation and coordination, cultural education, and special services. Budgetary misunderstandings and Washington's call for extensive revision of the plan caused animosity, and other district business took priority over ES. Concurrently, the third in a series of four federal project officers arrived, offering a different approach to help the district get what it, not Washington, wanted. However, by 1975 there existed little commitment to ES, no district cooperation or unity, and no real ES program. In April 1975, to salvage something of the project, ES was decentralized so that each area administrative principal had full budgetary and programing control. The project ended in 1978 after a final two years of greatly reduced federal funding. (SB)