Local businesswoman Deborah Engel will run for a seat on the South Orange-Maplewood Board of Education.
Engel was founder and owner of Work and Play, a pioneering co-working/childcare space in South Orange that closed in June. Engel launched a Facebook group to advocate for and assist other local business owners as they navigated ways to keep their businesses afloat amid shutdowns from the pandemic. She is also Vice-Chair of the South Orange Village Center Alliance (SOVCA).
“I am now running for the Board of Education because we are living in uncertain times that call for innovative thinking,” said Engel in a press release. “I believe my entrepreneurial and strategic communications experience will be an asset to the district as we adapt to our new hybrid learning model and implement the intentional integration plan.”
Read more about the election here.
Deborah Engel
See Engel’s full statement below:
Today I announce my candidacy for the Board of Education.
I am a mother with three children at Tuscan, a local business owner, a community volunteer and a professional communicator. I spent the past eight years building a new, innovative business model that combined coworking with a state-licensed childcare center, and the past four months leading local advocacy efforts to support our local business community. I am now running for the Board of Education because we are living in uncertain times that call for innovative thinking. I believe my entrepreneurial and strategic communications experience will be an asset to the district as we adapt to our new hybrid learning model and implement the intentional integration plan.
Over the next few years, as our district faces several known and unknown challenges, we must find a way to educate our children while also addressing their social-emotional needs. We must do this in an equitable way. And, we must be better at communicating with the parents in our district. In my role as your future Board of Education member, I am committed to making sure our district lives up to the high-quality education that all our children deserve.
