Brown School Buzz

With October coming to a close next week, and Parent-Teacher Conferences beginning in just two weeks, we are happy to report the majority of our students are arriving at school on time each day ready to learn. We have just a few students who are still struggling to make it in the door on time every day. For some it is a traffic timing issue or morning family chaos getting the best of them, and for some it's more complicated.

Every family can have one of those mornings and get out of the house a little later than usual. That said, "those mornings" should be infrequent. If your child has been tardy to school more than 3 times in the 33 days we have been at school this year, we would ask you to do your best to change that pattern. November is a choppy month for learning. Conferences, the Veterans Day holiday and Thanksgiving Break make the continuity of instruction much more challenging for both teachers and students, and it's even more difficult for kids to enter the classroom after the day is underway.

For a few students, arriving late to school is more of a difficulty transitioning from home to school. If your child is struggling to make the transition from a social or emotional perspective, please be sure to work with your child's teacher and our school counselors. We are all here to help and support you and your child. We want every child to start the day on a positive note.

As a reminder, breakfast is offered for free, starting at 7:50. Again, please reach out if we can help in any way. We appreciate your support and partnership for getting kids off to a positive and productive start each day.

For the first time in years, we are facing a critical shortage of high school student volunteers for our big event. The Monster Mash simply can't happen without our big kids running the

carnival games stations!

We’ve updated the Sign Up Genius to show exactly where we need coverage, and we need parents and teens (ages 14+) to step up and claim these remaining shifts by TODAY so we can finalize our plans. Please sign up now and share this post with anyone you know who has a teen who can help!

High School Students: https://www.signupgenius.com/go/20F0E4EADAC2DA7F85-58992507-monster

Brown School Parents: https://www.signupgenius.com/go/20F0E4EADAC2DA7F85-monster3

Thanks so much for your help!

If your child was absent on school picture day in September, or you are dissatisfied with your photos, please be sure to go online at: before November 10th to indicate your desire for photos on Retake Day.

Halloween is handled a little differently in public schools (Marblehead and beyond). Some schools have costumes, some have social time, and other schools choose to keep it a home or town event. In my experience, the same is true for families. Some do it up big, while others do not celebrate at all, and many others are somewhere in between. As the principal, I am approached by both teachers and families each year about my stance on Halloween activities, costumes, parades, etc..., so here you go:

I have asked that the Halloween celebrations be kept to 30ish minutes in the classrooms, preferably at the end of the day. If students choose to wear a costume to school, please be sure they are nonviolent in nature and do not include any type of weapon, or facemask. In terms of classroom activities, crafts and fall/Halloween themed learning activities. Your children's teachers can share the details of their individual classrooms.

Our youngest students will be planning a hallway parade for the first second and third graders to view. If you are a PK or K parent, those teachers can answer your questions about that activity. I thank you for your understanding as we navigate these decisions to assure minimal impact on instruction, and yet preserve opportunities for students to experience community and childhood traditions.

Introducing our 2026-27 Third grade Leadership Council! It is never too early to learn about leadership, working together for the common good, and taking care of our school community. After an introduction to what a Leadership Council is and does, third graders were invited to write a paragraph stating why they think they would a good candidates for the council. Each student presented to their classrooms, students voted, and two representatives were elected to represent each classroom classroom. Congratulations to AJ, Mary Kate, Sage, Jimmy, Howson, Lily, Claire, Rosie, Jack and Lucas! The students on this team have already shared many of their ideas about how we can make Brown even better than it already is! We are looking forward to watching them shine!

We encourage all students to share their ideas, backgrounds, heritage, and passions. These second graders took the initiative to find out more about the animals they are interested in and created some fascinating projects. This was not an assignment, it was their ideas, their work, their voice. They chose to come celebrate their learning by presenting their self driven projects with me last Friday. Way to go second graders! You are growing strong!

Thank you to all of those who filled out the volunteer form and are willing to come in and volunteer at the Brown School. Mr. Manfredi, Math Coach and Literacy Coach and I have gone through the forms and separated the tasks, as well as checked CORI and fingerprinting updates. Several folks who completed a form for volunteering still need a CORI, fingerprinting or both. The link for completing that process is below. We have the up-to-date list in the office we can check for you if you're not sure.

If you are interested but haven't completed THIS FORM, it's never too late! We'd love to have you aboard!

Next steps:

Mr. Manfredi will be reaching out to schedule folks who have volunteered to help us in the cafe and on the playground. Our coaches, Emily Perez and Rebecca Brand will be reaching out to people about working with kids on math and reading skills. It will take us a couple of weeks to get the volunteers organized and scheduled. We hope to have cafe and recess volunteers begin in November. Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! Together we are making Brown School better and better all the time!

We have noticed some of our bike and scooter riding students making some unsafe maneuvers in the parking lot and in the Brown School neighborhood. We have reminded all children of the rules regarding this, but we would really appreciate it if parents had the same conversation at home to help our kids understand the seriousness of being safe during arrival and dismissal.

1. If arriving from the West side of the building (Dartmouth Road side), please walk bicycles/scooters up the sidewalk to the bike rack on that side of the building. There are cars exiting here and the road is narrow. During dismissal, please use the crosswalk to exit as the traffic from the Car Line is particularly heavy.

2. If arriving on the East side of the building (Baldwin Road side), please ride bicycles/scooters directly to the bike rack in front of the gym.

3. Please ride on the extreme right side of the road or sidewalk in the Brown School neighborhood.

4. Please AVOID Brown School and Tower School Parking Lots. These are very dangerous areas with cars constantly moving in and out of parking spaces.

Thank you for talking with your children about the importance of safety during arrival and dismissal times, especially when riding bikes and scooters.

The District Digital Backpack with Superintendents Notes

The Brown School Arrival and Dismissal Traffic Maps

The Brown School Handbook

The 26-27 School Year Calendar

Wednesday, Oct. 28-School Advisory Council Meeting

Tuesday, Nov. 3-No School-Parent Teacher Conferences

Tuesday, Nov. 10-Evening Conferences 4:00-6:00 PM

Monday, Nov. 11-No School-Veterans Day

Wed. Nov. 25-NOON DISMISSAL for Holiday weekend

Thursday and Friday November 26-27-No School Thanksgiving Break

Email: maxfield.mary@marbleheadschools.org
Website: https://www.marbleheadschools.org
Location: 40-42 Baldwin Road, Marblehead, MA, USA
Phone: 7816393112