This report presents focal case studies of two working-class mothers who are building bridges between their individual homes and Parker Elementary (located in a small midwestern city) where both of their children attend school. The report delineates a study which examined how the literacy practices within the two women's households related to their roles at the school. The report then positions the critical issues surrounding the roles these women take in a consideration of the conditions necessary for inventing school communities. This report is one slice of data and analysis from a larger, long term, ethnographic study that seeks to understand how a sense of community can be established and nurtured in a highly diverse elementary school--the larger study is called "Inventing a School." The part of the report presented here states that data were collected on the two case studies for over two years and involved regular interactions with the mothers, formal interviews, observations in their households, and observations of the mothers in the school setting during events, parent-teacher conferences, and other activities. The report provides much naturalistic evidence of the various interactions which occurred during the study, illustrating with conversations among the participants. The report concludes that families must be viewed through a sociocultural perspective--teachers must be willing to share power with parents through respect for their knowledge and this, along with teachers' confidence to make decisions based on professional knowledge, will lead to the possibility of community in school. (Includes 5 figures; contains 38 references.) (NKA)