Dressing for Cold Temperatures

With colder temperatures, a reminder for students to dress in layers as the building is a bit colder than usual as we have windows open, particularly during unmasked snack/lunch times.  With the continued Omicron surge, we are making sure that we continue to follow effective mitigation behaviors and strategies.

Lunar New Year

A reminder that all PSB schools will be closed on Tuesday, February 1 in observance of Lunar New Year!  This holiday is traditionally celebrated by Asian cultures symbolizing the transition from winter, and typically involves families reuniting and gathering for a get-together meal.

PSB officially began honoring Lunar New Year last year, thanks to the efforts of then-BHS student Ashley Eng (Class of 2019). A change.org petition garnered over 750 supporters, culminating in the Brookline School Committee unanimously approving it as a school holiday in January 2020.

Please read the message below from Maria Letasz, Ed.D-Director of Guidance and Clinical Services.

Hello PSB Parents and Guardians,

The Public Schools of Brookline is offering a virtual event for parents and guardians of PreK-12 youth on Monday, February 7, 2022 from 5:30-6:30 p.m. 

SOCIAL MEDIA’S IMPACT ON MENTAL HEALTH: OPTIMIZING THE CONNECTION

Instagram, Snapchat, and Facebook foster a culture of peer comparison and entice users to stay online longer than they intend, which can foster discouraging or negative feelings. Snapchat locations and Instagram stories cause FOMO (Fear of Missing Out), contributing to anxiety, depression, and loneliness. From this event parents/guardians and educators will learn individual and group strategies to optimize students' use of social media.

Speaker:  Susan Reynolds, M.Ed. has over 20 years of experience in academic technology and digital wellbeing. In 2007 Susan founded ABC Legacy: Atoms to Bits Children's Legacy which generated the Look Up Foundation, committed to empowering teens and college students to join together to change their relationship to technology. As a teacher whose passion has always been to inspire her students to become change agents, she hopes to empower the next generation to find and implement these solutions. 

To register: https://forms.gle/kL9MSSD1BAgERyDR7

The event is being brought to the PSB community through our membership to the Massachusetts Youth Partnership (MPY).  The MPY membership has been generously sponsored this school year by the Brookline Education Foundation.

Maria Letasz, Ed.D.

Director of Guidance and Clinical Services, PreK-12