There were two purposes for this transformative mixed method study with an advocacy lens: to examine (1) the implementation of community school programming in a racially and ethnically diverse, high-poverty urban school and (2) the impact of implementation on student achievement. In-depth interviews, along with achievement data from two cohorts of students were analyzed separately and integrated during interpretation. Findings indicate adjusting existing leadership structures disrupted fixed boundaries between school and community, broadened school-level decision-making, and enhanced students' academic performance. A new community school development model that is both contextually responsive and localized is also proposed.