I spent my first years of teaching at a "smaller school" which was a 3A school. Even at 3A it was much smaller than I was used to as I graduated from one of the bigger 4A schools. I could never imagine going to a school smaller than that through high school. I graduated with almost 400 and I'm pretty sure I knew at least everyone's first name in my graduating class.
IMO smaller schools are incredibly cliquey. I'm not just talking about groups in school. Parents/teachers/administrators all have their own groups and if you don't belong to those groups or don't fit into that group you are pretty much shunned. Rumors happen much more frequently and spread much faster. My best example is as follows:
I coached freshman football and we played a game in Dewitt. I had a certain lady friend (friends and nothing more) that came to watch the game. After the game, I approached her, gave a hug, we talked for maybe a total of 3 minutes and then I hopped on the bus. On the way home the kids asked me who my girlfriend was. I told them it was a girl I knew from college and certainly not my girlfriend. By the next morning, I had parents emailing me to tell me that making out with a girl during a football game I was supposed to be coaching was not acceptable. During the same day I got called to my principals office to hear the same thing.
Don't get me wrong, for the most part, most of the kids I taught were great kids and I had a lot of fun those years, but it was certainly not something I would have liked to experience growing up. From my perspective, any sort of "gathering" outside of school had to include alcohol. This was true for students, parents, and teachers. Underage drinking was not something that was frowned upon, nor was it kept in the dark. Heck, the principal's daughter would have parties in their basement that he knew about. Of the kids who went off to college, they still hang out with the same group of friends. Those who didn't go to school or stayed close to home will never make it out of living in their home towns.