When the Chicago School Reform Act was first passed, many worried that the legislation would usher adversarial politics into the school building. This paper describes parent and community involvement in school decision making at Sprague Elementary school, which serves 1,500 Latino students. The case study chronicles the school's development through three Local School Councils and three principals. Data were collected through participant observation and interviews with parents, community members, teachers, and principals. At the end of the first 2 years of reform, the school community was mired in an all-consuming war over power and control. However, the Sprague case illustrates a victory of "democratic localism" that crossed the lines of role, ethnicity, and class. The Sprague school community was poor but had strong social resources. Parents, community members, and teachers with no prior involvement in governance educated themselves about issues and the law. The election of the third school council contributed to a sense of continuity and stability that the school desperately needed. The battle energized the broader parent community, catalyzed their social resources, and focused their attention on issues of school improvement. Five years after the passage of reform, the school had an activist principal, a supportive council, a broader parent community, and a newly roused faculty. (Contains 27 references and 73 endnotes). (LMI)