About 15 years ago, the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD/ District) embarked on the largest public school construction program in US history. Conceived as the major component in the District’s undertaking to relieve classroom overcrowding and return students to neighborhood schools operating on traditional calendars, the multi-billion dollar program set out to deliver approximately 167,000 new classroom seats by 2015 (LAUSD, 2009). Throughout the course of program implementation, community participation has occurred both by District invitation and through grassroots grit. This research looks at the forms and outcomes of such participation to understand whether and how a combination of District outreach and community activism has built a foundation for sustained school-community connections in Southeast Los Angeles. Such connections, I contend, will prove crucial to building and growing urban public schools that successfully serve as both centers of educational attainment and anchors of community development.