Roland Hayes School

Our North Star

“When children and teachers feel engaged, safe, and supported we have room to grow and learn through collaboration and risk-taking with our peers.”

Learn more about Roland Hayes here, from our own Young Scholars!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2MyhdW04fd4

To read past Community Notes, click here: link

Our Attendance Line --- 617-879-4540

Our DESE school profile is here: link

Before heading off for April break, thank you for taking a few moments to read this week's Community Notes. Thanks, and enjoy the much deserved break ahead!

SAVE THE DATE!

Mayfair is Saturday, May 9th!

👉👉👉👉👉👉👉Feedback Due May 10th👈👈👈👈👈👈👈

https://forms.gle/ZqGTTasDSAFMxHNb6

It is time for us to look ahead and begin planning for the 2026-2027 school year. Parents often ask how class placements are made and what role families may play in the process. This google form is meant to answer those questions, explain the process used at our school, and gather feedback from you.

Each spring, teachers, staff, and administrators work to form classes for the following school year. We invite you to join this process at home. While it is not necessary, nor is it expected that parents communicate regarding class placement, if you have information about your child’s social-emotional or learning needs that you think we do not know, please complete this google form by Sunday, May 10th.

We are unable to honor requests for specific teachers; letters that name a teacher will not be considered.

This feedback can help us get as much perspective as possible during this process. Additionally, this information can be helpful to next year’s teacher as they work to gather information about their students prior to the start of the school year. If you want to remind us of any past concerns you’ve had, please take a minute to do that in this questionnaire, too.

After we receive this information, teachers, specialists, our guidance counselors, and administrators will work together to form new class cohorts. We consider many factors while doing this important work. While making these classes, we consider the academic strengths, learning styles, academic needs, friendships, level of independence, and collaborative skills of the individual child and the group as a whole. Please know we give this process protected time and great consideration. It is our goal to form classes of learners that support and challenge each other. Moreover, although our teachers employ a range of styles, they teach under the same umbrella of shared core values, curriculum, and best instructional practices. You can be sure that professionals who know your child well will be putting great thought into their learning environment and peers for the upcoming school year. It is important that we respect this multi-step process and the outcomes that result.

Barring unforeseen situations, changes to class placements will not be made after they are announced.

We appreciate your and your child’s input and value your collaboration as we build our learning communities for the upcoming school year.

👉👉👉👉👉👉👉Feedback Due May 10th👈👈👈👈👈👈👈

https://forms.gle/ZqGTTasDSAFMxHNb6

Dear Hayes families,

Our next teacher and staff appreciation luncheon will be given on Tuesday, May 5th. Please sign up to donate funds, bring in an item or volunteer your time. You can cook, bake, purchase or donate. You can also support your favorite local restaurant by ordering a dish to contribute. Please sign up using link: https://www.signupgenius.com/go/10C0F4CA4A62FA0FECE9-63408325-mayappreciation

All items should be delivered to the Hayes Lobby 8-10am on Tuesday, May 5th. Please add a label with ingredients if needed for allergies. Also, write your name on the bottom of the dish if you would like to claim it after the luncheon. Clean platters and bowls will be available for pick up in the lobby at dismissal.

If you would like to donate funds to help us buy food and supplies for this luncheon, please submit through Pay Pal or Venmo to one of us:
Venmo: @anabelle-skalleberg Venmo: @Robin-Gilula or @Anabelle-Skalleberg
Pay Pal: anabelle.desangles@gmail.com

Thank you!

Anabelle Skalleberg (1 and 4th) and Robin Gilula (7th and 8th)

Did you apply to an independent school? If so, we know that decisions from Independent schools have been released. Please let us know your decisions as we are already beginning to manage enrollment needs and class placements for the upcoming school year. Thank you!

MCAS testing begins at the end of this month. The Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System (MCAS) is the state’s standardized assessment program that measures student progress toward the Massachusetts Curriculum Frameworks in English Language Arts, Mathematics, and Science. Find our calendar here:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/11gTCgZs3yQOhJV45shnUwg2ECWoeEBxjGLXs1dviAD4/edit?usp=sharing

For more PTO news and events, please visit: https://www.hayespto.org/newsletters/22351

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

As we head into our spring break, we want to take a moment to express our gratitude for our incredible community. Our parents volunteers have been hard at work - donating time, supplies, and resources for the PEP advocacy soup kit project, engaging, educating and energizing voters ahead of the May 5 election, and enthusiastically preparing for Mayfair. Behind the Mayfair scenes, there has been a flurry of activity: designing flyers, banners, a website page and a bulletin board; gathering items for the silent auction, organizing indoor games and outdoor rides, securing city permits and reserving space, finding financial sponsors and planning food and refreshments. This collective effort is what makes our community so special.

We hope you enjoy a well-deserved week away and we look forward to reconnecting when we resume on April 27!

April is Autism Acceptance Month
May is Jewish American Heritage Month
May is Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders (AAPI) Heritage Month

___________________

Monday, April 20th - Friday, April 24th: School Closed: April Vacation
Monday, April 27th: Model UN, 11:15am-12:00pm
Tuesday, April 28th: Grade 4-5 Student Council, 8:00-8:40am
Tuesday, April 28th: GSA, 10:35-11:12am
Wednesday, April 29th: MCAS: Grade 5 STE Part 1
Wednesday, April 29th: MCAS: Grade 8 STE Part 1
Wednesday, April 29th: AAPI Affinity Group, 10:35-11:20am
Wednesday, April 29th: PreK-6 Early Dismissal at 12:40pm
Thursday, April 30th: MCAS: Grade 5 STE Part 2
Thursday, April 30th: MCAS: Grade 8 STE Part 2
Thursday, April 30th: Young Scholars, 2:30-3:30pm
Friday, May 1st: MCAS: STE Makeups
Friday, May 1st: PEP, 8:00-8:32am
Friday, May 1st: METCO Connections Grades 6-8 Lunch Group w/ Ms. Terry and Ms. O'Shea, 10:50-11:25am
Monday, May 4th: MCAS: STE Makeups
Monday, May 4th: Model UN, 11:15am-12:00pm
Monday, May 4th: Rainbow Club: 5th Grade, 11:20-11:50am
Tuesday, May 5th: Grade 4-5 Student Council, 8:00-8:40am
Tuesday, May 5th: GSA, 10:35-11:12am
Wednesday, May 6th: METCO Connections Breakfast- family members invited
Thursday, May 7th: PreK-6 Early Dismissal at 12:40pm
Friday, May 8th: MCAS: Grade 3 Math Part 1
Friday, May 8th: MCAS: Grade 4 Math Part 1
Friday, May 8th: Yearbook, 8:00-8:30 am
Saturday, May 9th: Mayfair, 12:00-5:00pm

Field Trips:

Friday, May 1st: Model UN Conference Trip, 8:30am-4:00pm
Wednesday, May 6th: Grade 7 Trip to Hammond Pond, 8:30am-2:30pm

Nothing this week; please watch this space for future items.

Last Friday, Ms. Shashoua (Grade 2) and Ms. Perkowski (Grade 5) planned and executed a wonderful school wide community service project – making and donating homemade lentil soup mixes to support the Brookline Food Pantry!

Our cafeteria was buzzing with excitement and many productive bodies. I saw smiles from big kids and small, the connection between pep pairs was evident.

Take a look at these videos:

https://youtube.com/shorts/9vPi7qw7lVA?feature=share

https://youtube.com/shorts/q29d30fQO0M?feature=share

We are still working on this project! Please help by contributing ingredients and other supplies that we'll need for the soup mixes - select the Sign-Up Genius for your child’s buddy group or contribute wherever supplies are most needed:

BEEP and 7th Grade Boet WIN

KC and 6th Grade O’Shea WIN

KBK and 6th Grade Mooradian WIN

1R and 5Perk

1H and 5H

2T and 7th Grade Hockensmith WIN

2S and 6th Grade Terry WIN

3A and 7th Grade Roz WIN

3F and 8th Grade Picard WIN

4B and 8th Grade Goldner WIN

4O and 8th Grade Cook WIN

Please bring your donation to the Main Office. Thank you for helping our students to make a positive contribution to our community!

Any questions, please email theodora@hayespto.org.

Girls In Gear still has spots left! We especially encourages girls ages 5-7 to enroll. See details below.

Thanks to the generosity of the Brookline Education Foundation, I was able to join three other Hayes educators – Ms. Hockensmith (Art), Ms. Boet (7/8 Math), and Ms. Mills (English Learners) – at Insight Meditation Society for a silent retreat last weekend. The retreat was a period of renewal and restoration for all of us, and the support of the BEF made it possible.

I entered the period of retreat with no expectations, but my mind always drifted to students here at school – how to support them more fully, how to bring more compassion to my work, and how to tap into their motivation so that I could meet them where they are at. Compassion was definitely the word that came to mind the most as my thoughts flowed in and out.

During the retreat, this poem, by Nancy Winkler, was read aloud and I was quite smitten with it:

With its deep taproot

the dandelion stays calm

as its head explodes

The vacation ahead offers us all a chance to slow down, connect with what truly grounds us, and to restore and reconnect with all that provides each of us our taproot.

Be good to yourselves!

~ Asa

Our Land Acknowledgement

This parcel of land that our school sits upon is a special and sacred place.

Before this place was a Town, before our school was here, before this neighborhood was called “The Settlement” or “Chestnut Hill,” and before this land was a farm, this land was held by the Massachusett, the people Indigenous to this place. The Massachusett were the caretakers of this site, living full lives, raising families, and burying their dead right here. We recognize and honor this history, and seek to create thoughtful land stewards and citizens for generations to come.

As a public school, our primary objective is to ensure access, membership, and participation of all community members in our care; with this land acknowledgment we state our willingness to work towards that vision where all feel a true and abiding sense of belonging.