In the early 2000s, East Baltimore faced many challenges, including a lack of adequate educational resources, like libraries, and safe public spaces. Only 24 percent of adults in the community could read above a third grade level, and opportunities for economic development were limited. In 2003, the City of Baltimore created a development corporation, East Baltimore Development, Inc. (EBDI), whose goal was to “revitalize, re-energize and rebuild the East Baltimore neighborhood.” After two years of struggles with performance and behavior in an endeavor to build a new school in the neighborhood, EBDI leadership concluded that EBDI was not equipped to own and operate a school. This case study tells the story of how EBDI, with strong backing from Johns Hopkins, decided to unite a range of partners to transform the school into an innovative community resource. Henderson-Hopkins, as the school is called, is the first public school building built in East Baltimore in more than 20 years.