Book excerpt: This book provides a unique examination on the ways in which educating the whole child in the community school serves to ameliorate the conditions of poverty and obstacles to learning faced by students. Using a case study approach the book will highlight the successful journey of one school that transformed itself into a community school. Given the rise in poverty nation–wide and the unprecedented economic crisis, many school districts are looking for innovative ways to garner resources for their schools. The strategies outlined in this book will provide suggestions for using the resources of community partnerships as a framework for school renewal and improvement in student achievement. The authors share their first hand experiences building a community school from the ground up, as well as providing the national perspective on community schools. Given the power of the community school, this book concludes with a “call to action” for the dissemination of this model and its embrace of whole child education