‘How awesome is that?’ Students, parents all smiles as new Englewood H.S. opens for classes

Nader Issa/Sun-Time

While many kids dread the first day back at school after summer break, that wasn’t the case for 15-year-old Sherrod Fisher, who along with 400 other students was attending the new Englewood STEM High School for the first time Tuesday.

“It feels exciting,” said Sherrod, who along with his mother was all smiles as the day got underway at the South Side neighborhood’s first new school since the 1970s. The day included a visit from Mayor Lori Lightfoot.

“I’m very proud to be able to go to this school because it gets all the kids that weren’t able to have a great education and gives them one,” he added. “All the opportunities that we have, I feel it’s great for the Englewood community.”

Sherrod’s mom, Anniece Fisher, said one of best parts of the new school is that it’s an open-enrollment school that’s easily accessible for students like her son, who lives in the neighborhood.

“That means every child gets an opportunity to have a high-class education in the Englewood community,” Fisher said. “How awesome is that?”

Mayor Lori Lightfoot waves to students in a classroom.

The mayor, meanwhile, spent part of the morning touring the building with Englewood Principal Conrad Timbers-Ausar, CPS CEO Janice Jackson and first lady Amy Eshleman.

Though the school’s halls felt empty since only one grade is currently enrolled at a school that will eventually serve 1,600 students in grades 9-12, dozens of city and CPS officials, media members and other visitors amplified the back-to-school energy.

“I get to do a lot of fun things as mayor. Coming here, with the level of excitement and enthusiasm, and seeing this great school, absolutely is at the top of the list,” Lightfoot said at a ribbon-cutting ceremony to officially open the school, the same day about 360,000 other students started classes around the city.

”I want to give a special thanks to everyone involved in making this moment possible, including ... people in the community who hung in through a very difficult process, but hung in to make this moment possible,” Lightfoot said.

That process involved the closing of four Englewood schools last year, which drew the ire of some community residents. The new school, in fact, was built at 6835 S. Normal on 17 acres of land where the campus of one of the shuttered schools, Robeson High School, sat.

Principal Conrad Timbers-Ausar cuts the ribbon on the new Englewood STEM High School.

Jackson said the opening of the school was emotional for her, and she thanked community groups and activists who she said “sometimes are on the other side of the fence or the table with CPS,” but worked with the district to make the new school a reality.

”All of us collectively saw the vision and believed that our children, in particular in this community, deserved better,” Jackson said.

Those groups included the Englewood Community Action Council — a group of more than two dozen community members who help make educational decisions in the neighborhood. Darlene O’Banner, the co-chair of the Englewood CAC, said she “wanted the school from day one.”

”All other communities shine, they got new schools,” O’Banner said. “You go over there across Western, they got new schools everywhere. Why not us?”

Darlene O’Banner (left) walks with first lady Amy Eshleman (middle) and Mayor Lori Lightfoot on the first day of school at Englewood STEM.

O’Banner, who also serves on the local school council at nearby Earle Elementary School, said she was involved with “every minute, every decision” of the process creating a school.

O’Banner, 62, who has lived in the area since 1969, has seen years of declining enrollment and investment in Englewood schools — as evidenced by Englewood STEM being the first new school to open in four decades.

But O’Banner said she’s simply glad students are finally seeing some benefits now, and she said she hopes the new school gives kids like her grandchildren and great-grandchildren a chance to receive a quality education for years to come.

“It’s not about the adults, it’s not about the politicians. It’s about the kids and the students,” O’Banner said. “I’m not mad. But now is our time. Let Englewood have their share.”