This study examines issues encountered during a school's first year implementing science, technology, engineering, arts, and math (STEAM) curriculum. The school year began with multiple changes in leadership, including the appointment of a School Operations Manager and Teacher on Special Assignment, who took on respective roles of principal and assistant principal. Tension between school and district leadership, a teacher's arrest, and lack of adequate training for the school's teachers contributed to the failure of the eighth-grade level's first-quarter STEAM unit. This study delves into events leading up to--and tensions surrounding--the team's decision to begin a new unit in the second quarter.