What Does It Mean to Be Part of Our Community?

The “C” in RBBCSC stands for Community. I’ve been thinking a lot lately about what that word really means, and who gets to claim that they belong.

Deep Roots Matter

Some families in our community have been here for generations. That history matters. Longtime residents carry memories, relationships, and an understanding of how this community has changed over time. Those perspectives are incredibly valuable.

My family has been here for nearly ten years. By some standards, that makes us relative newcomers. But I don’t believe belonging is measured only in years.

When my career brought us to the Bloomington area, our family had choices about where to make our home. We chose RBB. We liked what Edgewood Schools could offer our children, and we decided this was where we wanted to finish raising them. More than that, this was a community we wanted to become part of.

And I think that word— chose —matters.

There is something special about inheriting a connection to a place. There is also something meaningful about looking at your options and saying, This is where we want to put down roots.

Being Here and Belonging Here

But choosing a community is only the beginning. To me, belonging is also about what happens after you arrive. It is building relationships. Showing up. Listening. Contributing what you can. Caring about what happens to your neighbors and their children.

Over the past decade, I’ve tried to do those things to serve the community I chose to be in. I’ve volunteered and supported my children’s activities in athletics and the arts. When there wasn’t a junior high girls’ tennis team, I volunteered to coach its first year and then advocated for that position to become a paid opportunity for a school employee. I’ve served on the corporation’s AI advisory committee and shared my professional experience with our schools.

Those experiences don’t make my voice more important than anyone else’s. They are simply part of how I belong here.

Different Experiences Make Us Stronger

People who have spent their entire lives here know things newcomers don’t. And people who have lived elsewhere sometimes bring different experiences, connections, and ways of approaching a challenge. We need both.

The same is true of parents, educators, retirees, business owners, and neighbors without children in our schools. We each have a different relationship with our schools and our community, and that means we each see things others may not. 

That’s the kind of community I want RBB to be:  one that values its history without making history a requirement for belonging.

Ten years ago, my family chose this community. In the years since, we’ve worked to become part of it. Now, I’m asking for the opportunity to serve it in a new way. I believe strong communities honor the people who built them, welcome the people who choose them, and make room for all of us to help shape what comes next.