Englewood Schools Need Engagement, Not Division

Englewood has always been a community rooted in grit, pride, and connection. My brother and I attended Englewood Schools, and our children currently attend them as well. I remember a town where neighbors talked to each other, showed up for each other, and cared deeply about our kids. The Englewood I grew up in has changed, and that’s okay. Change is part of life. What matters is that we carry forward the essence of who we were: a community that stands together, especially when things get hard.

Today, the biggest threat facing Englewood Schools isn’t a lack of talent, effort, or heart. It’s disengagement. It’s the slow erosion of trust that has seeped in from the national political climate where everything feels like a fight, everyone feels forced to choose a side, and nuance has gone missing. The flavors of fear, anger, and division served up at the national level have salted the local taste, and our schools are paying the price. When our schools become places where every decision is treated as a win-or-lose scenario, we forget the most important truth: our kids always lose when adults choose sides instead of solutions. Englewood is not Washington, D.C., and we shouldn’t let national tensions define how we treat each other here at home,

Englewood is better than that. We always have been.

Now is the time for us, not someone else, not leaders far away, not loud voices online, to circle the wagons around the people who matter most: our students and the educators who show up for them every single day.

Our teachers are doing some of the most challenging work in the community. They are managing academic gaps, mental health needs, behavioral challenges, and shifting expectations with compassion and professionalism. They deserve our full-throated, public support. Not silence. Not skepticism. Support.

Parents and caregivers are trying to navigate a world where information is abundant, but clarity is scarce. They deserve a clear path to partnership, not polarization.

Students—each carrying their own stories, struggles, identities, and hopes—deserve a school system that sees them as whole people, not numbers or problems to solve.

And the community deserves an environment where partnership is encouraged and every voice is welcomed with authenticity rather than suspicion.

This moment calls for leadership that steps forward, not leadership that points fingers. But more importantly, it calls on everyone to see themselves as leaders. Leadership is not a title; it is a choice. It is the decision to engage, to show up, to listen, to help, to uplift.

Every small act matters. A supportive email to a teacher. A kind word to a student. Attending a school meeting without already knowing your position. Volunteering for an hour. Asking how you can help rather than assuming someone else will do it.

I see these acts in our community: an athletic booster club reforming, an election with half a dozen candidates, PTSOs, our community assistance center, SACs, DACS, lunchtime volunteers, and many other places.

These acts become the mortar that strengthens Englewood’s culture.

Engagement is how we move forward. Not because the district is broken, but because engagement is what healthy communities do.

We don’t need to rebuild Englewood Schools. We need to reinvest our energy, strengthen our relationships, and remind ourselves that our kids and educators cannot and should not be collateral damage in a national climate they did not create.

Hope is not passive. Hope is not naïve. Hope is engagement in motion.

To our educators: We see you and we stand beside you.

To our families: Your voice and involvement are essential, not optional.

To our students: You are the reason for everything we do. Your future deserves our unity.

To our community: Let’s come together, not because things are bad, but because they are worth protecting.

Englewood’s strength has always been in its people. Let’s rediscover that strength not through rebuilding what was, but by engaging fully in what is and what can be. Show up. Ask questions. Offer help. Give an hour. Write a note of encouragement. Your involvement, big or small, shapes the future our kids will inherit.

Engage, and Englewood will thrive.