Although research has been conducted on state and city interventions of educational systems in urban districts in the United States, very little has been written from the perspective of an elected school board, the governing bodies being replaced during this era of reform. This case study illustrates how an elected school board in St. Louis, Missouri advocated for a return to elected governance following a period of state takeover using the tools of public consultative discourse analysis (PCDA; Scollon, 2010). Data sources consisted entirely of publicly available records and included agendas, handouts and minutes of meetings, media reports, transcripts of public hearings, reports, and policy documents. The analyses of the discourses included a close analysis of the textual devices that contribute to power and consent. In the spirit of PCDA, the elected school board did not simply analyze these texts and associated discourses but used the analyses to influence public policy. Three of the elected board's interventions are the focus of this article: reframing the state's charge; foregrounding the "public" in public education; and creating a counternarrative. This case study in public consultative discourse analysis provides insight into how discourse practices work to construct consensus around educational reform initiatives and the challenges inherent in creating alternative perspectives. (Contains 7 notes and 1 table.)