This paper reports on a study undertaken to investigate governance processes within particular school settings and the ideologies and values behind how these schools came to have their present governance forms. The results revealed several themes and changes in governance over thirty years. The governance discourse today is primarily about development and efficiency and there are pressures on alternative schools to become more commercially oriented. The emphasis is away from the parent involvement of the past, as schools begin to envisage themselves less as communities and more as businesses. There has been very little investigation into the dynamics of governance and change at the individual school level. This research does this, locating the themes and changes identified within the context of a development discourse and the global phenomena of school reform. It provides insights into important governance issues for those involved in governance in all schools and indicates how the roles and structures of governing bodies evolve and adapt. (Contains 6 tables, 1 figure and 3 footnotes.)