There is a nationwide epidemic of public school closures. Researchers who study school closures in urban communities attribute them to structural racism, divestment in Black communities, deindustrialization, and market-based school choice policies (e.g., Green, 2017). This brief describes the national epidemic and shares a local example of a neighborhood school, Horace Mann Middle School, struggling to stay open and reimagine itself as a community school in partnership with UCLA.