Howell School classes are in session, but the building is dark.
The gym is in blackness. The science room is in shadows. The kindergarten is dim and quiet.But one corner of the school burns with light. It's where Howell's eight remaining students gather to work on reading and writing.
They'll move through the rest of the school during the day, illuminating each place as they use it, turning off lights as they leave.
Attending a school where you're one of eight means you're careful. You conserve electricity, clean up after yourself and learn to use the microwave oven that substitutes for a lunch program.
For a year, this tiny school hung on a sword's point. Box Elder School Board members talked of closing Howell, busing its students 20 miles to Tremonton, using its budget in a way that would be more fair to the district's 11,000 students.
This year, although the school is open, those voices are still there, saying that the needs of these eight are not enough to balance the needs of thousands more.
But these eight children love this school built for 10 times their number. They're free to spend a whole lunch hour in the gymnasium; they might have two, or three, or four recesses a day; they never have to wait in line for the computers - in fact, there are several to spare.
Rows of photos in the school's entry way tell the story. Howell School, opened in 1980, was once brimming with students.
As recently as the 1992-93 school year, 54 students lined up for a photo, along with two teachers and three other staff members.
After that, the decline started.
Box Elder School District Superintendent Steven Laing said that seven years ago, nearby employer Thiokol was prospering and Howell was expected to boom. But since then, he said, the company has reduced its work force.
"It's a tough situation," Laing said. "We have a nice building out there, and a nice community, and it's a long time for those little kids to be on the bus."
"The needs of those students are unique enough that we've felt justified in keeping it open."