About Matthew Engel

I grew up in Ogden Dunes, Indiana, a lakeside community of 1,300 on the southern shore of Lake Michigan. It was the kind of place where neighbors become family and showing up for one another isn't optional, it's simply who you are. That close-knit community shaped my character, my values, and the vision I carried for the kind of life I wanted to build one day. After graduating high school, I moved around the country pursing an education and career, living in cities large and small, but I never found another place that felt quite like home — until I met my amazing wife, Michelle (Richards). Through her, I was introduced to this community I'm proud to call home.

Michelle and I are building our family in Allendale - not just in this community, but of this community. Our children will be the fifth generation of the Richards family to call this place home, a legacy that stretches back to a time when the land we're raising them on was a working family mink farm. That same piece of ground, once defined by early mornings, hard winters, and the grit of generations before us, is now where our kids will laugh and play and grow into the people they're meant to be. That was important to us.

That kind of rootedness shapes how I see things. When you're raising your kids on the same dirt their great-great-grandparents walked before them, you don't think in two or four year cycles. You think in decades, in generations. You think about what endures.

I'm running for school board because I believe that the children of this community — my own future students among them — deserve every possible advantage in an educational landscape that is changing faster than ever. My kids aren't school age yet, and that's precisely why I'm stepping forward now. The policies we shape today, the resources we allocate, and the standards we set will be the system they walk into when it's their turn. I don't want to react to a broken system when my children arrive at the doorstep — I want to help build one that's ready for them, and for every child in this district.

I'm deeply invested in this community, not as a campaign slogan but as a daily practice. Anyone who's witnessed what we are building here would attest. I believe strong schools are the backbone of strong towns, and that a good public education is a key to a thriving community. In a time of rapid technological change, shifting workforce demands, and unprecedented pressure on educators and students alike, we need school board members who understand both where we've come from and where we're headed.

I'm not a politician. I'm a parent, a neighbor, a friend, and a steward of a family story that has been written here for five generations and will hopefully be for many more to come. I want my children — and yours — to look back and know that when it mattered, the adults in the room showed up, did the hard work, and gave them the foundation they deserved. That work starts now, and I'm ready to get after it. I'd be honored to earn your vote.

- Matthew Engel

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