The secondary school scene in Dunedin is most unusual for several reasons.
It is characterised by relatively small schools, 12 in all, with only one at present reaching 1000 pupils.
Whereas most pupils in this country are taught in co-educational establishments, seven of the 12 in Dunedin are single-sex.
Furthermore, the slide in numbers in the past decade has been at state co-ed schools.
And while schools in the poorer parts of cities generally have been struggling, King's High School in South Dunedin is flourishing.
Perhaps, however, what has been most marked in Dunedin for at least 25 years is the quality of secondary education.
Even those schools not the flavour of the year have had strengths, and good or very good leadership.
Dunedin parents have been blessed to have been able to send their children to any of the high schools and colleges and know they have the opportunity for a good education.
What also happens - with Dunedin a compact city and because so many schools are in or reasonably close to the centre of town - is lots of movement across the city.
Dunedin families are thus favoured by choices to a variety of styles of learning and school environments.
Logan Park, for example, has a different feel, different advantages and different policies from, say Otago Girls' or Otago Boys'.
Queen's has Maori and Pasifika programmes the integrated (formerly private) schools are unlikely to be able to match.
The phenomenon of recent times has been King's. With a charismatic principal, it has drawn boys from all over the city, with nearby Bayfield suffering in particular.
But before the community and the authorities consider closing a Dunedin school, they should note the cyclical nature of such matters.
In the mid-1980s King's was small and shrinking.
Logan Park had to cap its roll (about 1200) and the talk was that perhaps King's should close.
With an outstanding rector, King's then picked up before later slipping back somewhat.
As recently as 2010 (March roll returns), it had 727 pupils, and now on present trajectories it is roaring well past 1000.
Perhaps, in the interests of education in Dunedin, King's roll should be restricted, perhaps by an enrolment scheme at an elevated level, just as the rolls at John McGlashan, St Hilda's Collegiate and Columba are restricted.
Otago Girls', with limited space on its Tennyson St site, has also had an enrolment scheme for many years, limiting numbers able to attend.
If King's is to grow much more, that will not only take extra taxpayer resources to fund and leave empty spaces elsewhere but also leave Dunedin vulnerable if and when King's loses its current appeal.
Another school might by then have had to close and others may have been seriously weakened.
Several Dunedin secondary schools have learned to live with and are even choosing to embrace the advantages of being small.
One promulgated idea, worth investigating, is that they, too, endeavour to cap their numbers, at modest levels.
The aim would be they could plan with more consistency and, hopefully, avoid the disruption and difficulties that come with a declining roll.
Stability in the secondary scene would help education across Dunedin.
The competition that really took off after the Tomorrow's Schools programme was introduced in 1989 has been beneficial in keeping schools and teachers working hard to appeal to pupils and families.
But collaboration suffers badly when competition for pupils becomes cut-throat.
Because Dunedin schools are small, that collaboration becomes all the more important.
Gaps in subject expertise, in particular, need to be plugged.
The Ministry of Education has met Dunedin's secondary school representatives to start a discussion about what secondary education provision could look like.
This, not surprisingly, has raised the sceptre of a school closure, a prospect the ministry has denied.
There are, nevertheless, issues that need to be examined even if, as we must hope, Dunedin has a brighter future and teenage numbers begin to climb again.
It is appropriate the ministry should encourage schools and the community to consider the issues.
