More than 50 Brooks students, parents, faculty and friends came together in the Keating Room on Tuesday for a special Lunar New Year celebration with Brooks’ Asian Student Alliance. Attendees enjoyed a lovely buffet, shared music and Head of School John Packard presented the special red envelopes. In addition, all students enjoyed Asian cuisine and a cultural performance in Wilder Dining Hall. Watch a video of the fun on our Campus Highlights and check out the album of photos.

Schedule Alerts

• March 7 - 25: Spring Break, boarding students return by March 25 at 9 p.m.
  

Student Life

Reminder: Day Students and Weather

As detailed in the Student Handbook, Brooks does not normally suspend classes or activities during snowstorms or other extreme weather conditions. Day student families are asked to make their own decision about the safety of travel and to notify the school in cases of absence due to weather conditions. Students will receive information about how to enter REACH requests on days with significant snowfall. We encourage day student families to make plans to help students arrive safely.

Looking Ahead to Spring Break

Spring Break will officially begin on March 7. Students are permitted to start departing for Spring Break after their final commitment on March 6 (a full day of classes). Brooks will provide shuttles to Boston's Logan Airport, South Station and to C&J Coach tours, which transports students via coach bus to New York City. If you would like to sign up your student, please do so here. You can reference specific details regarding each shuttle option on the school break transportation document. Additionally, you can reference the school break planning details document.

Students will begin to input their Spring Break REACH requests beginning on Feb. 22. All requests from students must be submitted by Feb. 27.

Weekend Bulletin

With a snowstorm on the way, it’s a "Winter Wonderland Weekend" at Brooks! On Saturday night, students are invited to celebrate winter with us all sorts of fun activities: sledding, snowshoeing, 3v3 broomball in the rink, a fire pit and cider donuts, plus hot cocoa and hot cider. In addition, Head of School John Packard is hosting an open house at his home on Saturday night and several off-campus trips are planned. See the full schedule in the Weekend Bulletin.

Athletics

The boys 1st basketball team hosted our local Special Olympics teams in the Athletic Center on Sunday. Brooks Head Coach Kenya Jones said, “This is always one of the most meaningful events of our season.”

Headed to Nationals in Pennsylvania

• The Brooks boys squash team is traveling to compete at Nationals this week: Teddy Fishman '28, Luke Hallal '29, Oliver Harris '28, Tom Pan '28, Alan Tratz '28, Shawn Wei '26, Philip Wen '28 and Miles Wolfgang '28.

• Two Brooks wrestlers qualified for nationals this past weekend: Harrison Kucharski '28 and Tucker Nichols '26.

Good luck to all the athletes traveling for competition this week!

Squash players just celebrated "Senior Day."

Arts

Vote for Ava Valianti '27

Ava Valianti has been chosen as one of the top three finalists for American Songwriter’s "Road Ready Talent" contest and will be performing live at the finals in Nashville on March 31.

There is a public voting component to the contest with 40 percent of the vote coming from the public, 40 percent from the panel of judges and 20 percent from American Songwriter staff. Please consider voting for Valianti! You’re allowed to vote once per day and voting is open now through March 31.

The Brooks School Gospel Choir invites families to join them at this special event on Sunday.

Admission

Admission Needs Your Help

Thank you to all who have volunteered to help us connect with newly accepted families next month. The admission team could still use some help. Will you join the effort to make calls to these families, congratulate them on their child's acceptance, answer questions and encourage them to attend Brooks? The call period is March 12 through March 25. If you are interested in making calls, please click to volunteer. Thank you!

Giving Day & Brooks Together

Students helped make Giving Day a success.

Thank You, Families!

Brooks families showed up for this year’s Giving Day, contributing over $214,000 from more than 160 parents and guardians. Your support is vital to the success of our overall Brooks Fund and we are deeply grateful for your generosity. Thank you! 

As we continue our Brooks Together parent drive, there is still time to contribute if you have yet to do so! Please contact Director of Family Engagement and Giving Mary Merrill if you have any questions.

Family Programs

We Appreciate You

Thank you to all the families who treated the Brooks community with Valentine’s Day treats and raffle prizes during our annual Treats for Your Sweets event last week.

Our next parent-sponsored lunch event will be the Summer Sundae Sendoff on May 19 — an ice cream sundae bar during the final days of classes for students. Keep an eye out for more information about the Summer Sundae Sendoff in future newsletters.

You're Invited to "Brooks Gives Back"

Alumni, parents, Brooks employees and friends of the school are invited to join us on March 28 from 11 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. at Lazarus House Ministries' shelter and soup kitchen in Lawrence as part of our annual "Brooks Gives Back" day of volunteering.

Participants will help in a variety of ways, including clean-ups; organizing and packing supplies; preparing meals, even heading outside for yard work. Get all the details and register.

We also have Brooks Gives Back volunteering events in Boston, Chicago, London, New York and Washington D.C. on March 28 which families are welcome to join. See the details for all the volunteering opportunities.

Reminder: Send Us Your Grandparent & Special Friend Addresses

During Spring Break, we will be mailing printed invitations for our annual Grandparents and Special Friends Day. This year the event is on May 9. Please share:

• the grandparent/special friend name
• address
• relationship (to the student)

with Director of Family Engagement and Giving Mary Merrill and she will be sure to add their names to the invite list.

While we do have address information for many grandparents, we do not keep special friend information year after year. Feel free to also reach out if you would like to confirm the grandparent information that we have on file is the most up-to-date. Questions? Contact Mary Merrill.