This research aims to explore the links between school development and the demands of local communities in present-day Central and Eastern European (CEE) societies, which before the sociopolitical turn of 1989/1990 were strictly centralized and monopolized by the communist parties and the governments. As an outcome of the Helsinki Process (since the mid-1970s), that rigorous centralization began to ease and changes such as the "Comprehensive Movement" emerged, allowing for more room to maneuver for local communities and more flexible government policy considering some local needs and demands. The authors aim to answer the question of how local communities try to enforce the influence on their schools in the new wave of educational centralization today. [This paper was presented at the European Conference on Educational Research 2019.]