Superintendent's Update

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On most Fridays during the school year, the Office of the Superintendent will send an update to the community highlighting some of the excellent work being done by our educators and school leaders. The update will also include important announcements from the district’s central office. These newsletters will be posted on the PSB website (www.brookline.k12.ma.us/supt-updates).

5/30/23 Correction: Graduation date for the Ruffin Ridley School has been added.

We wish you all a restful and relaxing three-day weekend and will see you back on Tuesday, May 30!

Highlights of our PSB students include: Hosting author visits at our schools, Learning about Bike Safety, and visiting our friends in the Public Works Department during the Thursday Open House!

As with all public events, our schools' graduation ceremonies are generally open to community members. However, we ask that you be mindful and considerate of our event’s capacity so that everyone can enjoy this important milestone. Schools will also make every effort to hold the event outside. Any changes to location or venue will be communicated to you by the morning of the event. A full schedule of this year’s graduations can be found below. Unless noted otherwise, all ceremonies will be held at school property:

• Brookline High School: Sunday, June 4, 1:00 p.m. at Cypress Field. In addition, Brookline Interactive Group (B.I.G.) will provide a live stream of the graduation ceremony. This video will be available during and after the graduation at: http://brooklineinteractive.org/live
  
  

• Runkle: Friday, June 16, 4:00 p.m.
  
  

• Heath, Lawrence, Pierce: Tuesday, June 20, 4:00 p.m. The Heath Graduation will be held at Little Field Park.
  
  

• Baker: Tuesday, June 20, 4:30 p.m.
  
  

• Driscoll, Lincoln, Ruffin Ridley: Tuesday, June 20, 5:00 p.m.

Students hatched trout eggs in a classroom aquarium, observed them as they grew, and released the hatchlings into Hammond Pond. In the art room, they created ceramic representations of a specifically chosen trout. Following their ceramic representation they fine-tuned their observations, recording all the small details and patterns on the trout with a watercolor and colored pencil piece.

The pictures above specifically showcases the work of Ms. Reyelt's 3rd grade classroom at Driscoll. You can see more of Ms. Reyelt's work with Driscoll students on Instagram @driscoll_artroom.

One hundred students from all PSB elementary schools participated and were fabulous on and off the bandstand! Each group came in first place and received the following honors:

• The Brookline Youth Orchestra (BYO), directed by John Ferguson with assistant director Irina Naryshkova, received the Superior Rating and Best Overall Orchestra.

• The Townwide Jazz Band, directed by Rick Stone with assistant director Kenny Kozol, received the Excellent Rating, and Lawrence 8th grader Madalena Kozol received the Outstanding Soloist Award.
  
  

• The Townwide Concert Band, directed by Chris Thoft-Brown with assistant director Rick Stone, received the Excellent Rating.

You can find a complete list of student participants in the festival here. The PSB Performing Arts Department will also close out with many end-of-the-year elementary and middle school Band, Orchestra, and Chorus concerts over the next few weeks, which you can find information about at this link. Congratulations to our directors and students for their outstanding performances!

In our previous update on March 3, we announced a call for Crossing Guard of the year from the Massachusetts Safe Routes to School (SRTS) program. Over 175 individuals were nominated for the awards from over 35 statewide communities. SRTS seeks to recognize and highlight the critical role that crossing guards play in helping students and families safely access schools throughout the Commonwealth, before and after school!

You can usually find Ms. MacPherson at the intersection of Harvard and Linden Streets on most weekdays! Along with other SRTS winners, will be recognized at the Annual Safe Routes to School Awards Ceremony scheduled for Thursday, June 8. More information on the ceremony can be found here. Congratulations to Ms. MacPherson for this fantastic honor!

The Brookline Adult and Community Education (BA&CE) program is excited to continue its in-person programming at PSB Schools and other locations from July 5 through August 18. Our summer programs are designed to inspire and provide children with a platform to explore their creativity in a fun and supportive environment.

Activities include sports, theater, web design, and more! This week, we want to feature our large selection of art classes, including comic making, clay pinch pots, and music boxes! All Brookline SmartSummer sessions are also held at PSB schools. Detailed information about programming, including registration information, can be found here.

Volunteers on the Climate and Sustainability Task Force will operate from summer 2023 to September 2024. They will help inventory community assets, develop recommendations for PSB, and present them to the school committee for possible action. If you have expertise relevant to one or more of these groups and would like to volunteer, please review the detailed information and submit your name no later than Friday, June 16 at 5:00pm. Complete details on the process, groups and tasks is available here. Thank you!

LGBTQIA+ Pride Month commemorates the 1969 Stonewall riots, where gay rights activists clashed with NYC police over discrimination and police brutality. It also aims to raise awareness about issues surrounding the civil rights of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender/Transexual Americans. In the past few years, the LGBT initialism has been modified to include other populations, such as queer, questioning, intersex, asexual, aromantic, and agender communities, as well as allies. The letters "Q", "I', "A", and "+" serves to recognize the inclusion of these marginalized identities. As of June 2023, LGBTQIA+ is also the preferred term used within the Brookline and PSB community.

• Brookline High School Graduation (Class of 2023): Sunday, June 4
  
  
• Runkle School Graduation (Class of 2027): Friday, June 16
  
  
• Father's Day: Sunday, June 18
  Father's Day is an annual holiday that honors fathers and father figures and celebrates their contributions to the lives of their children and to society.
  
  
• 60th Anniversary of Black studnets "stay-away" from Boston Public Schools: Sunday, June 18
  An estimated 5,000-8,00 Black students staged a "stay-away" from Boston Public Schools to protest the city's de facto segregation. Instead of going to classes, students, families, and friends attended Freedom Schools, where they participated in workshops on Social Justice and Black history. This event provided a template for the rest of the country on how to organize and create coalitions to challenge institutional racism.

The oldest known celebration of the end of slavery, Juneteenth commemorates June 19, 1865, when General Gordon Granger and 2,000 Union troops arrived in Galveston, TX, to take control of the state. Stemming near the end of the American Civil War, Granger enforced the Emancipation Proclamation from President Abraham Lincoln over two years ago, freeing various people held in bondage and slavery. Various communities in the US (particularly in the South) celebrated Juneteenth in the late 1800s and early 1900s, with the holiday becoming more popular with the rise of the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s.

• Baker, Driscoll, Heath, Lawrence, Lincoln, Pierce, Ruffin Ridley Schools Graduations (Class of 2027): Tuesday, June 20

• Summer Solstice: Wednesday, June 21
  The Summer Solstice is when the sun reaches its highest position in the sky! It is the longest day and shortest night of the year.

• Final Report Cards and Grades Posted: Friday, June 23
  BHS Report Cards issued during the week of June 26.

• Eid al-Adha (Islam): Wednesday, June 28 to Thursday, June 29
  Eid al-Adha (عيد الأضحى, or "Sacrifice Feast" in Arabic) is a Muslim holiday commemorating the willingness of Ibrahim (Abraham) to sacrifice his son to God. Satisfied with Ibrahim's devotion, God accepted a sacrifical animal in place of his son. The Muslim traditon of charity and care for the poor has roots in this tradition, as the sacrificed animal (holiday meal) is shared equally among the family, their friends and relatives, and the poor.

Join the Public Library of Brookline and the Office of Diversity, Inclusion, and Community Relations.for an interactive workshop on Wednesday, June 7, 7:00 to 8:30 p.m. at the Brookline Village Library (361 Washington Street) with educator and artist Matisse DuPont (they/she), tracing the lineage of LGBTQIA+ identities related to contemporary western society.

This workshop explore 200 years of history and spark your curiosity about the past, present, and future of queer and trans people. Matisse will also highlight notable figures from queer and trans history and recommend resources for further learning. This multigenerational program is geared towards adults and teens. Come with an open mind and curiosity – there will be lots of time to answer your questions! Learn more about the event here.

• Brookline Pride Parade on Thursday, June 1. From 3:45 to 4:30 p.m.: We invite the PSB community to support and cheer on the Inaugural Brookline Pride Parade on Thursday, June 1. From 3:45 to 4:30 p.m., members of our school's Gender Sexuality Alliances (GSA) will join other groups in walking along Davis Avenue to celebrate social acceptance and change. Special thanks to the Brookline Police Department for helping with road safety and with our celebrations! Please note that onlookers who are in 6th grade and younger should be accompanied by an adult.
  
  
• Virtual Workshop on ADHD on Wednesday, June 7 from 5:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m.: PSB is excited to partner with Cartwheel Care to provide parents and guardians with an online workshop about ADHD and strategies to help children develop stronger executive functioning skills at home. The virtual webinar will be held on Wednesday, June 7 from 5:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. over Zoom. You can RSVP for the event here: tinyurl.com/BrooklineADHD.

The Brookline Community Preservation Committee is in the process of developing Brookline's first Community Preservation Act Plan, which will guide the community in four major areas and projects: community housing, historic preservation, open space, and recreation.

The committee invites community feedback in developing this plan. You may elect to complete a survey (https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/BrooklineCPP) or by visiting the committee’s Open House on Monday, June 5 from 6:30 to 8:00 p.m. at the BHS @ 22 Tappan Building. The CPC very much appreciates your thoughts about how to enhance our Town through this funding mechanism! More information can be found here.

• Previous community updates can be found here.

(Media credits: J. Buller, M. Clayton, M. DuBois, L. Guillory, H. Koh, K. Kozol, D. Lipton, K. MacKenzie, O. Reyelt, L. Richardson, BA&CE, Brookline CPP, Brookline ODICR, Brookline PD, Pierce Garden, Safe Routes to School)