Brooks School

May 22, 2014

 

Dear Parents,

 

As I noted at the beginning of this busy month, we seem to hit a significant milestone of one sort or another every day in May. The past three weeks have been full of such moments, and we are poised to have a terrific graduation weekend with the Class of 2014 to wrap things up. The only loose end that remains is the weather, which is bound to cooperate!

 

I have enjoyed seeing a number of you in different settings during the past few weeks. The spring concert early in the month was a lot of fun, as was a chance to sit with a group of you in New York for some discussion about the school. Along the way, we have had a series of moving and thoughtful Chapel talks offered by members of the Class of 2014, some nice dinners with all or part of the class at various junctures, and all that comes with the home stretch in the classroom, on the fields, and on stage.

 

In the midst of it all, we welcomed back a few hundred alumni and alumnae this past weekend, and this was the first time in more than 10 years that we hosted this event while school was in session. I received too many notes from attendees who thoroughly enjoyed themselves to share in one letter, but would emphasize that the enjoyment felt by graduates stretching from 2009 all the way back to the 1940s had much to do with having a window into the school with students out and about. To wit, one member of the Class of 1964 offered the following: "The kids were real, inviting, smiling, and ever ready to answer questions and engage." There was much more of that sentiment in circulation, and your sons and daughters impressed the full range of Brooksians who were back on campus all weekend long.

 

We are in full academic review mode this week in all classes as third-, fourth-, and fifth-formers prepare for exams and final papers that will be due at some point between now and the end of next week. The Class of 2014 had its final classes on Tuesday of this week, and has been engaged in an impressive array of talks, symposiums, and seminars, organized beautifully by faculty members Kate Zipin, Kathy Crowley, and others. The hope has been to orient our soon-to-be graduates for the increased level of independence and responsibility they will have on various college campuses in the fall. This has been time well spent.

 

For most of our athletic teams, the spring season ended yesterday. Both crew teams, however, will be on their way to Lake Quinsigamond for the New England Interscholastic Rowing Association's championships on Saturday. The uncooperative spring made it especially difficult for our crews to be on the water as much as they would have liked, but the weekend is bound to be a lot of fun for all of them.

 

The student art show opens this afternoon in the Robert Lehman Art Center and will be available for all to enjoy through the end of our exam period next week. Tomorrow night, a series of short plays written by current students will be performed in the auditorium at 7:30 p.m., and then again at 9 p.m. I hope you will have an opportunity to attend.

 

Once final athletic and artistic endeavors are completed, we will turn our attention squarely to the weekend's festivities. We will share a series of thoughts and prizes during Sunday afternoon's Lawn Ceremony, scheduled to begin at 2 p.m. Three members of the Class of 2014 will speak about academic, artistic, and athletic experiences, respectively, and those talks will be superb. Our "Boo Hoo" Chapel follows the Lawn Ceremony later in the afternoon and early evening, as the sixth form will line the walk after Chapel for touching goodbyes offered by faculty members and fellow students. The tent dance takes place that night, and we then get up early for Prize Day the next morning -- Memorial Day. I am looking forward to all of it.

 

Before closing, I do want to note that we have experienced a fairly concentrated stretch of discipline matters of one sort or another involving major school rules pertaining to theft, academic dishonesty, and alcohol use. The sum total of this has led one student to leave the school with six additional students serving suspensions for their transgressions. We have also experienced an inordinate volume of rumor concerning further drug and alcohol use, and did pause on Thursday afternoon of last week to attempt to purge dormitories and locker room areas of any drugs and alcohol that had been stowed away. This non-disciplinary effort yielded some illicit items, but I doubt that everything we were looking for was turned in. With that in mind, I would ask for your help in staying vigilant on these issues as we all pursue an excellent finish to the year. If this raises any questions for you, please let me know.

 

Once Prize Day passes, we will dig into exams and close the year by the end of next week. From there, the school will have better than a week's worth of faculty meetings, followed by our June trustee meetings scheduled to begin two weeks from tomorrow. I will look forward to wrapping the year up with one more letter at some point in mid-June after all of the work still ahead has settled.

 

We are looking forward to a terrific graduation weekend.

 

Best,

 

John R. Packard

Head of School