The fundamental role of school-university partnerships has been understood by a few, misunderstood by many, and dismissed by most as an extra, something a person focuses on if he or she has keen interest along with extra time, extra cash, and extra personnel. The concept rose to prominence in the late 1980s and into the 1990s; now, 20-plus years later, it has faded or disappeared altogether in most venues, venues where there was a short-lived flourishing that some recall with nostalgia, a time when weak things were made strong. What happened? Where have all those partnerships gone? In this article, the author argues that three key elements are associated with the basic construction and sustaining of school-university partnerships that allow for people to envision and build the promise and potential of such partnerships, to cut through what is problematic, and to allow the flourishing to begin and continue: (1) essential, not optional; (2) relationships, not politics; and (3) self-renewal, not survival.