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.”

Previous "Community Notes" can be found here: https://www.brookline.k12.ma.us/domain/718

The "Community Notes" is sent every other week. Thanks for reading!

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

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

Spring has arrived! With the snow gone, we can finally enjoy the beautiful flowers springing up all over campus. It is also time for our spring campus clean up. Everyone in the community should feel free to join in the efforts! See garbage on the ground? Pick it up and put it in the trash. Old clothes strewn about? Perhaps bring them in to the lost and found? Everyone pitching in will help our school be a beautiful place for all of our children to learn and live and grow.

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Independent School Decisions

if you applied to an Independent School and were accepted, please let us know if you will be withdrawing from Hayes at the end of the school year. We request this information so that we can 1) work to provide a smooth transition for your child, and 2) manage our enrollment in each grade level. Thanks!

👉👉👉 https://forms.gle/dYEoT3i3GrX4ZJQA9 👈👈👈

Deadline: Sunday, April 13th

It is time for us to look ahead and begin planning for the 2025-2026 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, April 13th.

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.

👉👉👉 https://forms.gle/dYEoT3i3GrX4ZJQA9 👈👈👈

Deadline: Sunday, April 13th

Below you will find a broad snap shot of this month's attendance patterns (March 3 - March 28). This data does not include excused absences due to illness and/or medical appointments. Thus, the patterns of absence here showcase student data for whom we have a limited understanding of why they have missed the day(s).

Again, we implore you to communicate with us when your child is absent for school. And we ask that when arranging personal trips that you do so in a way that minimizes school interruption (vacations are not excused absences).

I do want to give a shout out to the BEEP crew; there was a dip in attendance recently, but look at them now! Nice bounce back, my BEEPers! Let's see if our Grade 8 crew can do the same in April.

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

On May 6th, Brookline residents will vote for new members of two key government bodies - School Committee (3 members) and Town Meeting Members (~5 members per district).

Do you know who you will support? Attend these free public forums to help introduce you to the candidates:

April 1 North Brookline Candidates Forum

April 10 Brookline League of Women Voters Forum

April 14 Learning First Brookline Forum

• April is National Autism Awareness month
• Ramadan continues! The Eid celebration is Monday - Eid Mubarak!

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MCAS testing for students in Grades 3-8 begins March 31 and goes until June 3. The testing schedule is here: link

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• Monday, March 31st: MCAS: Grade 5 ELA Part 1

• Monday, March 31st: Rainbow Club, Grade 3, 11:20-11:50am

• Monday, March 31st: Grades 6-8 Student Council, 11:20am-12:00pm

• Tuesday, April 1st: GSA, 10:50-11:20am

• Tuesday, April 1st: MCAS: Grade 5 ELA Part 2

• Wednesday, April 2nd: Model UN, 11:20am-12:05pm

• Wednesday, April 2nd: PreK-8 Early Dismissal @ 12:40pm

• Thursday, April 3rd: MCAS: Grade 3 ELA Part 1

• Thursday, April 3rd: MCAS: Grade 4 ELA Part 1

• Thursday, April 3rd: School Council Meeting, 8:15-9:45am

• Thursday, April 3rd: Young Scholars, Room 209, 2:30-3:30pm

• Friday, April 4th: MCAS: ELA Makeups

• Friday, April 4th: Energy Academy: The Power Squad Assembly (Gr 3-5), 8:10-8:45am

• Friday, April 4th: International Night, 5:30-8:30pm

• Monday, April 7th: MCAS: 6th-8th ELA Part 1

• Monday, April 7th: Grades 6-8 Student Council, 11:20am-12:00pm

• Tuesday, April 8th: MCAS: Grade 3 ELA Part 2

• Tuesday, April 8th: MCAS: Grade 4 ELA Part 2

• Tuesday, April 8th: GSA, 10:50-11:20am

• Wednesday, April 9th: MCAS: 6th-8th ELA Part 2

• Wednesday, April 9th: Model UN, 11:20am-12:05pm

• Thursday, April 10th: PreK-6 Early Dismissal @ 12:40pm

• Thursday, April 10th: AAPI Group, 10:50-11:20am

• Friday, April 11th: MCAS: ELA Makeups

• Friday, April 11th: PEP, 8:05-8:30am

• Friday, April 11th: Staff Volleyball Beach Party, Gym, 1:40pm

Field Trips:

• Friday, April 4th: Grade 1 Trip to Boston Children's Museum, 8:30-11:45am

Thank you for NOT pulling in and pulling out of this area during morning pick drop and/or afternoon pick up. This is a tricky driveway with lots of foot traffic crossing on Eliot Street. By NOT pulling in and out, we make sure that everyone is safe when arriving and departing from school each day.

A Two Part Webinar: The DO's and DON'Ts of Parenting Your Anxious Child

Date: April 01 - 08, 2025

Join Lynn Lyons on April 1st and April 8th, 6:30pm to 8:30pm ET

In this two part webinar, Lynn Lyons explains the concrete approach that she uses with families in her private practice and teaches to schools and therapists all over the world. Parents need support and direction to break the patterns that feed worry, avoidance, and accommodation. Anxiety is loud and messy, but it's not complicated once parents understand HOW it works and what to do (and NOT do) when it shows up. This webinar is geared toward parents/caregivers of younger children (approx ages 4-12.)

You'll get assignments to work on between the two sessions, time to ask questions, and solid approaches to change the worry patterns in your family.

All registrants will immediately receive a recording of the sessions to watch and review for one month.

https://lynn-lyons-llc.ce-go.com/parenting-an-anxious-child-dos-and-donts-for-your-family

This amazing event is back! I hope you'll consider joining!

March is the longest month in schools, with no breaks at all. The break up the month joyfully, one thing we do here at Hayes is called "March Morale Pals," a time to pair up with another staff member (secretly) and every week surprise them with a treat designed to lift the spirits. My Morale Pal has gifted me with gummy bears, new notebooks, fancy post-its, and more. On Monday, the big reveals happen and we each get to find out who our Morale Pal has been and thank them.

Giving thanks and celebrating each other are values we hold dear here as a staff. Our true hope is that these practices emanate broadly, infiltrating every aspect of our work – especially impacting children.

One of my favorite moments I see in so many classes is when children at the end of a class or the end of the school day say a warm "thank you!" to their teacher. The act goes beyond politeness, messaging in that moment a devotion to the work and sincere respect for their teacher's efforts.

This school space is a slice of the universe – not the center of the universe, just a part of its great churning. If our efforts towards gratitude and support can take root here, then the possibility of the tendrils expanding broadly beyond our brick and mortar walls is enhanced a thousand fold.

Thank you for being a part of that great wheel of thankfulness and support. It really matters.

~ Asa

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.

Roland Hayes School

The Public Schools Of Brookline | A METCO Partnership School

Dr. Asa Sevelius, Ed.D. | Principal

Email: asa_sevelius@psbma.org

Pronouns: he/him

Mr. Kirtan Patel | Vice Principal

Email: kirtan_patel@psbma.org

Pronouns: he/him

Website: https://www.brookline.k12.ma.us/Page/17
Location: 100 Eliot Street, Chestnut Hill, MA, 02467
Phone: 617-879-4570