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

Our DESE school profile is here: link

OUR SECOND GRADE IS HAVING A FOOD DRIVE

DECEMBER 8-12

THAT'S NEXT WEEK!!!!

Want to learn more? Just watch this video which will both charm you AND move you to act!

https://rolandhayes.smugmug.com/Second-Grade-Food-Drive-2025/n-njvbVR/i-p8LC3pJ/A

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INCLUSIVE SCHOOLS WEEK is December 5-9

From the Inclusive Schools Network:

"The 2025 theme of Inclusive Schools Week is “Children First,” a phrase rooted in the powerful Maasai greeting, Casserian Engeri, which translates to “And how are the children?” This traditional salutation reflects the Maasai’s deep commitment to ensuring that their children are well, recognizing that the well-being of children reflects the health and future of the entire society.

In schools today, this theme challenges educators, school leaders, and communities to ask:

• Are all children reaching their full potential in our schools?
• Do our educational practices reflect a commitment to equity and access for every
• student?
• How can we ensure that students with disabilities are seen, heard, and valued in
• every aspect of school life?

Putting Children First means prioritizing every student’s right to learn in an environment that supports their diverse needs, embraces their unique abilities, and fosters a sense of belonging. It means recognizing that when schools are designed to support students with disabilities, they become better places for all learners."

Below are some resources you may find illuminating:

• Inclusive Schools Network Activity Guide
• ReelEducation - Free Resources for Educators | ReelAbilities Reframing Disability
• PDF version of the Inclusive Schools Week book list

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Brookline Education Foundation’s Idea Lab Grant awards for 2025

From the BEF:

"Idea Lab Grants provide up to $1,500, support teachers in offering new, hands-on, authentic, and experiential learning opportunities in the classroom. These grants also encourage educators to pilot innovative approaches that reflect the latest educational thinking.

Two educators at Hayes School applied for and received grants for this school year. Below are the awardees and the titles of their projects:

• Chima Ikonne: Growing Minds: An Accessible Gardening Project for Diverse Learners
• Matt Picard: WINning with Robots"

I am excited to see how this work supports our students!

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!! Public Service Announcement !!

If you are driving to drop off or pick up your child at the school front entrance, PLEASE AVOID using the semi-circular bus lane. Even a quick rolling drop-off by a few parents delays traffic for everyone, and especially the multiple buses waiting to access that lane.

At drop-off and pick-up, this lane is bus-only! Don't go there!

If your child is absent or has a change in schedule, please call our attendance line!

😀😀😀😀 Add this number to your cell phone favorites: 617-879-4540 😀😀😀😀

This message box will be checked immediately after arrival; this new attendance line will allow us to free up our time each morning with other high-demand tasks.

Please be sure to leave:

• your child's name
• your child's class/grade
• reason for absence
• any other pertinent information

617-879-4540

Let's celebrate Hayes teachers and staff this holiday season and give them festive sweet treats on Monday, December 8th! Please bake or purchase cookies, brownies, bars, cupcakes- anything that can be picked up to enjoy. Involve your kids! We encourage notes and drawings of appreciation, too!

You can sign up here:
https://www.signupgenius.com/go/10C0F4CA4A62FA0FECE9-60593581-2025

All treats can be delivered to the Hayes Lobby 8-10 am on Monday, December 8th. Please add labels for nut allergies. Also, write your name on the bottom of the dish if you would like to claim it at the
end of the day. Clean platters will be available for pick up in the lobby at dismissal.

If you would like to donate funds to help us buy sweet treats, please submit through Venmo: @Anabelle-Skalleberg

Thank you!

Robin Gilula and Anabelle Skalleberg (Parents in 7th and 8th, 1st and 4th)

Ski & Ride Club Update

Grades 5-8

• Exciting Updates!

• We are getting closer to making the 3rd bus happen!

• We are committed to doing our very best to ensure that all students who want to have the opportunity to ski and ride!

• Don't wait any longer, sign your student(s) up today.

Hayes Ski and Snowboard Club information packet and forms.
Learn more about our club from our Information Session notes

Over the past few weeks, 112 students have signed up to ski and ride with us — what an amazing start! Thank you for your enthusiasm and support in making this club such a success.

We have room for a few more students!

The Public Schools of Brookline offer fincanial assistance for those who are qualified.

Sincerely,

Matt Durant

Brookline’s youngest learners are ready to enter school! The Office of Registration and Enrollment (ORE) is holding a special virtual Information Session on Tuesday, December 9 starting at 6:30 pm, for families planning to register their children for Kindergarten in the 2026-27 school year. This event is designed to help guide families through each step of the kindergarten enrollment process and answer questions.

To register, please scan the barcode below or click here.

Simultaneous interpretation will be available for Japanese, Korean, Mandarin Chinese and Spanish during this event.

Kindergarten is an important milestone for everyone involved, and our staff is here to support families in this transition. The Office of Registration and Enrollment (ORE) is committed to ensuring that all families have a smooth and successful transition into their first day of kindergarten in Brookline. All families will have multiple opportunities to engage with our staff throughout the registration process and are happy to work to support each family with any specific needs they may have.

Notice for BEEP families: This session is open to the general public. If you're a family with a student currently enrolled in BEEP or that is currently receiving Special Education Services through BEEP, you should have received an invitation directly from the Office of Registration and Enrollment to a separate event designed specifically for your student .

A highlight of the school year is our Mayfair, a huge carnival on campus each spring. Currently, we do not have any volunteers for the mayfair committee.

Without volunteers Mayfair cannot happen. So, please, think about it and reach out to our PTO co-presidents (lisa@hayespto.org and theodora@hayespto.org) for more information.

If you are planning to apply to private schools, please be aware of three things:

• The PSB uses our own forms for the recommendation process. Please send the requests to the appropriate staff via the independents school's portal (ie, Ravenna). That will alert us to your request. We will then use our forms to communicate with the private schools to which you are applying.
• The firm deadline for staff to complete recommendation forms is Friday, January 9th, 2026. After this date, staff will not be able to complete letters of recommendation.

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

If you are wondering if reading graphic novels is "real reading," you may find the following article and images helpful: Graphic Novels are "Real" Reading. “Graphic novels allow the reluctant reader to slide into the story without as much of the heavy lifting as prose might require.”

Also, check out this list of the excellent vocabulary in the new Dog Man book!

• confines (as a noun)
• petulant
• spiteful
• malice
• prelude
• bask
• brute
• pulverizing
• chancellor
• constable
• immune
• prophecy
• extractive capitalism
• despair
• anguish
• unrelenting
• woe
• subjective
• profound
• humble
• wrath
• tribulation
• carnage
• remnants
• tenacity
• obnoxious
• putrid
• stench
• exoskeleton
• antidote

And in the note page at the end, cognitive bias - a theme of the story - is explained.

Happy reading!

~ Mrs. Anderson

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Lindsay Anderson

Librarian

• Hanukkah begins at sundown on Sunday, Dec. 14, 2025 and lasts until sundown on Monday, Dec. 22, 2025
• Kwanzaa begins Friday, December 26, 2025, and goes through Thursday, January 1, 2026

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• Monday, December 8th: Holiday Staff Appreciation, 8:00-11:00am

• Monday, December 8th: Model UN, 11:15am-12:00pm

• Monday, December 8th: Rainbow Club, Grade 4, MPR, 11:20-11:50am

• Tuesday, December 9th: GSA, 10:35-11:12am

• Tuesday, December 9th: Variety Show try-outs and practice, Auditorium, 2:30-5:00pm

• Wednesday, December 10th: Math Club (Grades 5-8): Rm 198, 2:40-3:45pm

• Thursday, December 11th: Young Scholars, 2:35-3:35pm

• Friday, December 12th: PEP, 8:05-8:32am

• Friday, December 12th: METCO Connections Ice Cream/Smoothie Workshop

• Monday, December 15th: Model UN, 11:15am-12:00pm

• Monday, December 15th: Rainbow Club, Grade 5, MPR, 11:20-11:50am

• Tuesday, December 16th: GSA, 10:35-11:12am

• Wednesday, December 17th: AAPI Affinity Group, 10:35-11:15am

• Wednesday, December 17th: Math Club (Grades 5-8): Rm 198, 2:40-3:45pm

• Thursday, December 18th: Young Scholars, 2:35-3:35pm

• Friday, December 19th: Yearbook, 8:00am

• Saturday, December 20th: Hayes 5th-8th Chorus Students at Providence Bruins Hockey Game, 7:00pm

The Town of Brookline has created a help navigator to streamline the process of finding help for a host of areas (e.g., housing, medical services, mental health, work, legal services) for folks across the lifespan. The link is below, and I anticipate that it might help in situations where you are looking for resources to support families.

https://brooklinema.findhelp.com/

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The Digital Well-being Playbook

Do your kids spend a lot of time on Tiktok, YouTube, or playing Fortnite? Do you as parents struggle to understand everything that is going on in their online lives? You may also be wondering how your own relationship with technology might be healthier. You’re in the right place! Coming out of the pandemic, many of us have spent more time on screens than ever before, and the lines between home, work, and school are blurry, making it challenging to unplug from our devices. Join us as we discuss navigating this balance with tips and tools to: • Achieve sustainable, positive digital practices with family and at work. • Optimize your digital habits for better mental health and family connection. • Prevent and recover from sensory overload and digital overwhelm. • Positively shift your relationship with your devices so they fuel vs. fatigue your relationships.

Date and Time

• December 10th, 2025, 6:00 pm over Zoom

About the speaker

Nina Hersher, MSW, is Chief Learning Officer at the Digital Wellness Institute, author of the bestseller, Your Playbook for Thriving in the Remote Work Era, and a highly sought after speaker. A leading expert in Digital Wellness, Hersher holds a specialized Master of Social Work in Digital Culture and Program Development. Hersher is also Co-founder of annual Digital Wellness Day, reaching over 7 million people in 36 countries.

Registration

https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/RX8DloUYRTarhQoFvpiEjA

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The Hidden Brookline Team is delighted to announce that Hidden Brookline has produced an introductory 10 min documentary, created with the professionals at Brookline Interactive Group, and with Malcolm Cawthorne, PSB METCO Director, as co-narrator and Colin Stokes, Brookline parent and Town Meeting member, as collaborator.

Https://hiddenbrookline.weebly.com

Please check it out!

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Tackling Food Insecurity

A Brookline community-wide meeting was held recently to discuss food insecurity, and they generated the following document with an updated list of resources. The group will continue to meet regularly, and I'll be sure to share updates.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1pCxtC3gVTLaccmxOTBW4lJPlF3Ae2Kvo/edit?usp=sharing&ouid=117789565646978521392&rtpof=true&sd=true

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From the Teen Center

In a recent yoga class, my teacher read part of David Whyte's :Gratitude" aloud as we entered shavasana. I thought it was worth sharing here:

“Gratitude is not a passive response to something we have been given, gratitude arises from paying attention, from being awake in the presence of everything that lives within and without and beside us. Gratitude is not necessarily something that is shown after the event, it is the deep, a-priori state of attention that shows we understand and are equal to the gifted nature of life.

Gratitude is the understanding that many millions of things must come together and live together and mesh together and breathe together in order for us to take even one more breath of air, that the underlying gift of life and incarnation as a living, participating human being is a privilege; that we are miraculously, part of something, rather than nothing. Even if that something is temporarily pain or despair, we inhabit a living world, with real faces, real voices, laughter, the color blue, the green of the fields, the freshness of a cold wind, or the tawny hue of a winter landscape….

Thankfulness finds its full measure in generosity of presence, both through participation and witness. We sit at the table as part of every other person’s world while making our own world without will or effort, this is what is extraordinary and gifted, this is the essence of gratefulness, seeing to the heart of privilege. Thanksgiving happens when our sense of presence meets all other presences. Being unappreciative might mean we are simply not paying attention.”

I am grateful for this community, and hope you are as well. Enjoy the weekend ahead!

~ 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