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

I want to take this moment to share (again) our School Improvement Plan (SIP), a document that guides my/our thinking and work here at school with your children:

https://www.brookline.k12.ma.us/Page/2864

In particular, I draw your attention to this portion of the SIP:

"Our primary objective is to ensure access, membership, and participation of all community members.

In the 2024~2027 School Improvement Plan, we maintain an emphasis on professional growth for all educators; student mental and social emotional health and wellness; and inclusion practices with a particular focus on our Reaching for Independence Through Structured Education (RISE) programming. These foci, along with an emphasis on core content standards, will – we believe – allow for the students we serve to have full access, membership, and participation while at school.

As practitioners, staff and community members actively engage in cycles of inquiry and are asking ourselves the following questions:

• What is the impact of my teaching on students, both daily and over time?

• What does high-quality teaching and learning mean in an ever-changing society?

• What does fair assessment mean, and who decides?

• What systems and practices can we disrupt and/or create so that community members can enjoy full access to school?

Centering these educational quandaries across academic and social disciplines allows us to collectively reflect on the learning conditions we are establishing for students, reflect on our personal biases, and move our practice forward so that the most current educational philosophies and pedagogies are being implemented in our classrooms.

We believe that children should be able to use all kinds of tools to impact their local community. Our students should be able to approach unstructured problems, define the problem, assess them, engage in cycles of inquiry and feedback – including success and failure, and work collaboratively towards innovative solutions."

Here at Roland Hayes School we have a moral and ethical mandate to ensure our learners –representing a diverse range of identities, learning styles, and needs – have what they need to reach equitable outcomes in as inclusive a space as possible.

As we move into the later half of the school year, I reiterate this vision so that there can be no question as to the level of care, compassion, and concern that we have for our practice and your children.

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

An important message to our parent's of middle school students:

Many of our middle schoolers aren't eating breakfast and/or lunch. They might have snacks, but they are usually snacks with little nutritional fuel (Hot Cheetos, for example, or Takis).

More worrisome, it may be that some students tease other students for eating and often kids get caught up in damaging diet culture.

Please speak with your child about their eating, pack healthy snacks, and encourage healthy habits.

If we suspect your child isn't eating or is experiencing disordered eating, we will partner with you.

Here are some statistical high-lights and low-lights from February:

• Our Grade 1 students are crushing it! 97% attendance rate this month, well above other grades
• Our Kindergarten crew had the next highest rate of attendance, at 95% – not too shabby!
• BEEP attendance has hit a low, falling below 90%
• Our boys, across the grades, are having stronger attendance rates than our girls
• Our chronic absentee rate is 21%. That means that 21% of our students have missed 10 or more days, with Grades 2, 3, and 5 in the lead for the most cases of chronic absenteeism

The implications of not being in school:

• Students miss learning and socializing.
• Grades drop in middle school. Students are expected to make up missed work. Assignments not turned in are marked as zero, bringing grades down significantly. Each teacher has different missed work policies and students are expected to communicate with teachers to make a plan to make up the missed work.

We recognize that we are and have been in the midst of an illness hurricane ... RSV, norovirus, flu, and - yes - COVID. All of these are present and accountable here in the school. Call us and let us know what ails your children. Illnesses are excused absences. By communicating WHY your child is absent can help us keep your child's absence record accurate AND provide any support you may need.

Tonight, Ramadan begins starting a month of observances and celebrations.

• Saturday, March 1st: Hayes Science Fair, 8:30am-12:30pm

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

• Tuesday, March 4th: GSA, 10:50-11:20am

• Wednesday, March 5th: Model UN, 11:20am-12:05pm

• Thursday, March 6th: Young Scholars, 2:30-3:30pm

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

• Wednesday, March 12th: Author visit: Mat Heagerty, 8:15-11:15am

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

• Thursday, March 13th: AAPI Group (Library), 10:50-11:20am

• Thursday, March 13th: Young Scholars, Room 209, 2:30-3:30pm

• Friday, March 14th: Term 3: Grades 6-8 Progress Reports Published

• Friday, March 14th: PEP, 8:05-8:30am

• Friday, March 14th: PTO Community Meeting, 8:15-9:30am

• Monday, March 17th: Rainbow Club, Grade 5, 11:20-11:50am

• Tuesday, March 18th: GSA, 10:50-11:20am

• Tuesday, March 18th: Faculty Meeting, 2:45-3:45pm

• Wednesday, March 19th: Model UN, 11:20am-12:05pm

• Thursday, March 20th: Second Grade Japanese Drumming Workshop, 8:10-10:10am

• Thursday, March 20th: Young Scholars, Room 209, 2:30-3:30pm

• Friday, March 21st: METCO Connections, 2:00-3:00pm

• Monday, March 24th: Rainbow Club, Grade 4, 11:20-11:50am

• Tuesday, March 25th: GSA, 10:50-11:20am

• Wednesday, March 26th: Model UN, 11:20am-12:05pm

• Thursday, March 27th: AAPI Group (Library), 10:50-11:20am

• Thursday, March 27th: Young Scholars, Room 209, 2:30-3:30pm

• Friday, March 28th: PEP, 8:05-8:30am

Field Trips:

• Friday, March 21st: Grade 4 Field Trip to Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, 8:25am-1:00pm

Our Changing Earth (4th Grade | Science | Bookcreator)

Animal Research (1st Grade | ELA | Bookcreator)

Plate Boundary Models (7th Grade | Science | Makerspace + WeVideo)

Ancient Egypt (6th Grade | SS | Makerspace + Slides)

Hayes is thrilled to announce an author visit for grades K-5 on March 12, 2025, from Mat Heagerty. He writes graphic novels like 'Lumberjackula', ‘Martian Ghost Centaur', and ‘Unplugged and Unpopular'. Mat is dyslexic, and struggled a bunch in school, now he travels the country talking to elementary and middle school students about the strengths of learning disabilities.

Your child can get a book signed and inscribed to them by ordering through this webpage hosted by the Brookline Booksmith. Orders placed before March 7 will be signed and personalized and will available the day of the school visit (March 12). Orders placed after March 7 will include a signed and personalized bookplate and will be available for pick up at the school at some point after March 16th. Final deadline for ordering is March 16th.

ORDER HERE

--

Librarian

The Hayes School

Brookline, MA

@lindsayteaches

Coming up! Read Across Hayes (and America) Week!

Hayes alum and current senior at BHS, Suvi C., has asked if we can be a drop-off site for her Cradles to Crayons clothing drive. We said, "Sure!"

If you have been planning to clean out your closets, this weekend will be a great time to do so. Then, bring those gently used clothes to our lobby next week. Thanks!

Footprints is a free Brookline neighborhood indigenous history walking tour is written and conducted by members of the Town of Brookline’s Indigenous People’s Celebration Committee and members of First Parish in Brookline.

Sources include indigenous authors and local historians, including Barbara Brown (Hidden Brookline) and Thomas Green (Massachuset tribal nation) who is a local historian and part of the Tribal Council of the Massachuset at Ponkapoag. We are constantly updating the script and welcome feedback and suggestions.

The tour has been given about 12 times in the past few years and it has been well received. It is about 1 mile in length with some hills and wooded paths. Plan on 2 hours.

Our next tour is scheduled for Saturday March 22 (Rain Date March 29) at 2 pm. We will meet at the corner of Chestnut and Walnut Streets in Brookline.

Please email us at brooklinefootprints@gmail.com if you are coming. You are encouraged to bring friends and others who you think would be interested. Please have them contact us directly so we can keep track of the number on the tour.

We will cancel the tour in the event of inclement weather.

PLEASE RSVP BY WEDNESDAY MARCH 19 IF YOU ARE COMING. You will get a confirmation notice via email by Thursday March 20.

Thank you for your interest!

Here is our new website: https://brooklinefootprints.com/

We celebrated the 100th Day of School on February 12, a great way to party before we left for break. Our Math Specialist, Ms. Raskin, brought the big bucks to the celebration for sure! Lots of people were disappointed that those hundred dollar bills weren't real...

I hope you have a wonderful 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