This handbook outlines a variety of the strategies that the Salem Public School District in Oregon used to actively involve citizens in governing their school system through community schools. Emphasis is placed on successes, failures, and principles of the community-based problem-solving and decision-making activities which the Salem School District has encountered since it began receiving federal funds through the Community Schools Act in 1974. Section One describes citizen involvement in Salem. The problems faced have been various. One major problem has been that many community school coordinators have barged into communities with their programming expertise and implemented their own community school model centered around the community school advisory council. Another major barrier to active citizen involvement was a block of city leaders who could be described as preferring that major decisions be made on a golf course. Two final major barriers were the lack of clear purpose given to the early citizen groups and the lack of skills on the part of staff to nurture development once citizens did start to get involved in decision making. These problems were met through a six month training project for staff in process facilitation and orientation and training opportunities for citizen groups. Section Two, which comprises the bulk of the handbook, describes the activities of the "Community Leadership Workshop," develops a work plan for starting the "Ideal Community School," and presents an eight step planning process model to help participants make decisions about when, where, and to whom community schools should invest their energy and time. Recommendations for professionals in community education based upon Salem's experience are also included. (Author/RM)