March 5, 2024

Dear Parents and Guardians,

With our winter season now fully behind us and Spring Break less than 24 hours away, we are all looking forward to the change of pace. By the time we return toward the end of this month, the weather will be warmer, the days will be longer, and our beautiful campus will gradually be springing back to life. And, of course, we are excited to do all we can to ensure this final stretch for the class of 2024 is full and memorable as graduation weekend draws closer. It is a great time of year to be a Brooksian!

Before looking too far ahead, however, I do want to share some of what your children have been doing so well over the first six weeks of this second semester. The winter is our longest season of the year with lots of starts and stops along the way. With Winter Term in the middle of it all, we find ourselves pivoting between different learning and living modes with some frequency. Through it all, your children and our faculty navigate this variable stretch in our year with great energy, enthusiasm and passion for all that is on their plates. 

In this particular winter stretch, we accomplished a lot. While this is in no way an exhaustive list, much of what I forecasted in a late January Chapel talk came to be in impressive form:

• Our Model UN team excelled at a full weekend event in early February wearing the shoes of nations and roles that deepen an appreciation for both the challenges and importance of international dialogue and partnerships. Jasmine Shi '24 was particularly impressive in earning distinction amongst the thousands of students participating.

• I thoroughly enjoyed celebrating the Lunar New Year with a number of our students and parents. The opportunity to be a part of such an important and meaningful holiday for so many at Brooks was special. And, the food was amazing!

• February is Black History Month and we were all the beneficiaries of time spent in Chapel hearing from students and colleagues about their own experiences and hopes for both our school and the ongoing effort to realize equity, inclusion and belonging for all. In ways that illuminated the contributions of civil rights heroes of the past, and underlined the challenges of the present, we all moved into March with a better sense of what we can do to make a difference.

• With Women’s History Month now upon us, Women’s Work in the Robert Lehman Art Center had its opening reception this past Friday evening and will remain up for all of us to enjoy through April 27. While we spend much of March away from school, we will be honoring Women’s History Month in Chapel when we return from the break in late March. All of us hope you will have a chance to enjoy this exhibit with work from a range of incredibly talented artists.

• After a full winter rehearsing, refining and sharpening their performances on a stage with a set that no one attending the show will ever forget, the cast and crew of She Kills Monsters delivered an outstanding performance on three consecutive nights. I always enjoy the shows our students and faculty pull together, and it is especially nice to see first-time performers on the Brooks School stage do so well.

• Our Jewish Student Organization coordinated our final Chapel service of the winter yesterday to celebrate Purim, and we were honored to welcome Rabbi Idan Irelander of Congregation Ahavat Olam as our speaker. His message centered on building and fostering community through love while combating the dangerous and deleterious effects of hate speech, symbols and groups. The combination was rich and full of important food for thought to carry into our break.

• At the beginning of yesterday’s Chapel, I had the privilege of announcing Kiara Rivera Valdez '26 and Charlie Rousmaniere '25 as this year’s winners of the Wilder Speaking Prize contest. This annual event, coordinated by English Department member Susannah Voigt, goes through a series of rounds culminating with five finalists delivering their speeches to the whole school in our theater. All five students were outstanding at this event on Friday of last week. All of the Wilder Speaking Prize winners are displayed in Wilder Dining Hall under a portrait of long time faculty member, Fessenden Wilder, for whom the space is named. 

• Finally, our winter teams at all levels competed well through these colder months with so many memorable individual and team performances. It was nice to celebrate great teammates in a recent school meeting. And, we are extremely proud of both our girls and boys basketball teams who qualified for New England tournament play and represented the school impressively in all respects. Our boys team pushed eventual champion Rivers to the absolute limit in a thrilling game on Saturday. We are looking forward to more of the same this spring!

We put a lot into this winter season in and out of classrooms and drew a great deal from it. We even enjoyed the first “no-snow” day in Brooks School history when I prematurely called school off while under the impression that a big storm was on the way! Regardless, the spirit and energy of your children continue to move this year forward in ways that feel good to all of us, and we anticipate the momentum will grow as we head into April and May.

This week marks the conclusion of our annual six week Brooks Together parent giving drive. Thank you to the volunteers and families who have given time and resources to support this vital aspect of our program. 

With the third marking period wrapping up this week, we hope that these next few weeks allow you and your children to enjoy some time together in ways that are harder to realize when school is up and running. We will look forward to students returning to dormitories and classes later this month. In the meantime, please be in touch at any point if you have questions or if there is anything I can help with.

Have a great Spring Break!

Best,

John R. Packard

Head of School

Brooks School • 1160 Great Pond Road, North Andover, MA 01845