@edmorrish
Truth. It trickles into high schools as well. It is common for small cities to have one huge high school instead of several smaller ones. Part of the justification for this is to centralize (and reduce) costs, but the main reason is, I suspect, to field better sports teams. A larger pool of students means more athletically gifted kids to choose from.

Of course, this means that fewer kids get the chance to play sports, and there are many other detriments to their well-being as well. Many of us don't like it, but the policy is still generally supported