We have made it through a full week of school with heat, humidity, rain and finally beautiful, fall weather. Runkle has welcomed so many new students and families to our community. We are learning new routines in the classrooms, hallways, cafeteria and playground. It has been wonderful to watch students shake off those first day jitters and engage in learning and play.

Runkle's Back to School Picnic was the perfect way to end the week. Families could once again enjoy each other's company on a beautiful evening in Brookline. Thank you Runkle PTO for one more great event!

Merima Kantardzic, Runkle's Food Service Manager, has been hard at work to ensure that every student receives a healthy, delicious breakfast and/or lunch while at school. We have had a few bumps along the road since the first day of school. However, we are now fully staffed and students have ID Cards that work! The lines are moving faster and the food looks and tastes great! The picture above was taken today:)

Breakfast and lunches remain free to students this year. We must serve students a FULL meal (entree, fruit, vegetable and drink). It is healthy and reduces the chance that they will ask for "seconds". The cafeteria is required to charge for second lunches AND for a la carte items (eg. one apple, juice or granola bar). I want to make families aware of this practice in case they receive an unexpected bill. I believe that some invoices were sent to families in the past few months. It is my understanding that those bills are from pre-pandemic balances. You can contact food services through sasha_palmer@psbma.org OR mona_saltalamacchia@psbma.org with any questions. We do not have access to that information at the school level.

We are excited to host Back to School/Open Houses IN PERSON during the next few weeks. This is an opportunity for families to see students' classroom and work samples. Please see the dates and times below for your grade level event:

• Kindergarten: Friday, 9/23, 8:10-9am (Classrooms)

• Grade 1: Friday, 9/30, 8-8:30am (Classrooms)

• Grade 2: Thursday, 10/13, 7:55-8:50am (Classroom then Library)

• Grade 3: Monday, 10/3, 8:10-8:50am (Classrooms then Library)

• Grade 4: Tuesday, 10/11, 6-7pm (Classrooms then Library)

• Grade 5: Wednesday, 10/12, at 7:45-8:30am (Classrooms)

• Middle School: Thursday, 9/29, 5-6:30pm (Classrooms and Library)

• Model United Nations for grades 6-8 will be offered this year on Wednesdays at 2:45pm. This program is run by 2 BHS students and one Runkle staff member. Please fill out the Model U.N. Form if you are interested. We would like to start this program on Wednesday, October 13th.
• Volleyball Tryouts will be held this week: Boys will meet in the gym on Wednesday, 10/21, at 2:45pm. Girls will meet in the gym on Thursday, 10/22 at 2:45pm.
• I may have spoken too soon regarding cell phone use. Students are not following the rules. The phones are out in the hallways and on the playground. We may move towards collecting all phones in homerooms to be returned at the end of the day. Other schools do this, but we were hopeful that we could manage this differently. Stay tuned.

• Monday, September 26th - NO SCHOOL Rosh Hashanah
• Wednesday, October 5th - NO SCHOOL Yom Kippur
• Monday, October 10th - NO SCHOOL Indigenous People Day
• THURSDAY, 10/13 - PICTURE DAY AT RUNKLE! Stay tuned for more information.

Donna