ABSTRACT
In this chapter, we attempt to demonstrate, through the portrayal of four events drawn from one public alternative school, how the authentie involvement of students in the running of this school contributes to the goal of building a strong school community.1 The school from which we have drawn our examples is the Jefferson County Open School in Lakewood, Colorado, a school we have watched with much interest for the past decade. The events illustrate the Open School community's ethos of involvement of both students and staff in all aspects of the school's program. Although the Open School became a prekindergarten-through-twelve school in 1989, this chapter will focus on how governance functions in the school at the high school level, that segment of it with which we are most familiar. 2 We do not mean to imply, however, that it is only at the high schoollevel that students are trusted to participate in the running of this school.
