Results of a case study of collaborative decision-making involving administrators, citizens, and staff show that the process, while not fully collaborative, did increase both citizen participation and community acceptance of subsequent decisions. School board members and administrators in an upper-middle-class Midwest district, faced with declining resources and enrollments, formed a planning committee that combined citizens, administrators, staff, and students. Researchers used interviews, archival data, and theories of both organizational decline and citizen and staff participation to analyze roles, attitudes, and outcomes in this collaboration. Board members and administrators played facilitating and behind-the-scenes managing roles. Citizens on the committee and on its subcommittees provided input and major recommendations. Teachers and students, however, had only a small, ill-defined role. Participants reported mostly positive attitudes toward citizen participation and gave positive assessments of the outcomes, which involved community consensus and personal growth. Central to the positive results was the planned design of the process, which set clear goals and deadlines while remaining open to all citizen input. (RW)