Spend a few moments at the Academy and right away you get it. Saint Hope Academy, in Sacramento's Oak Park neighborhood, is a school that in a class of its own. Lori Mills is head of saint hope academy. She's also Kevin Johnson's longtime friend and former classmate at U-C Berkeley. Like so many others, Mills embraced Johnson's dream of a neighborhood reborn - a community shaken awake and re-energized right down to its academic and economic roots.

Johnson founded and funded saint hope academy in 1989. He was just 23 years old and an all-star player for the phoenix suns. But that was just the beginning. In 2002, Sacramento's school board approved his plan for saint hope public school 7…a charter school with the mission and educational methods of the best private schools. Most recently, Johnson's organization was chosen to transform troubled Sacramento High into another charter school. Sac high project manager Margaret fortune says the goal is daunting and simple: raise student academic performance.

For more information visit www.sthopeacademy.org