Educators and community members talk increasingly of school-community partnerships but have different purposes and arrangements in mind. Educators tend to think of communities in terms of resources for schools, whereas community members tend to see partnerships also as means of influencing their children's education and benefiting the community. This paper examines partnerships from a community perspective. It contrasts school and community views of community. It presents the case of the Southeast Education Task Force, a Baltimore community organization that works to develop partnerships with the school system to improve neighborhood schools. Examples show varying success in forming partnerships concerned with organizing, research, and programming. Analysis highlights the importance of individual principals in forming school-community partnership but shows how common school system structure and culture discourage school-community partnerships. More realistic public expectations of schools would make beneficial partnerships more likely. (Contains 28 references.) (Author/RT)