I hope this message finds everyone recovered from Daylight Savings last weekend and happy to be halfway through the long month of March. I learned that we are also 2/3 of the way through the school year today!

I want to share a serious incident that occurred earlier this morning. Three students experienced probable allergic reactions at lunchtime, potentially to soy milk distributed today at Heath school.

Heath's school nurse acted quickly to support the students and contacted emergency services. Emergency response services arrived on the scene, and the Brookline Police Department promptly arrived at each PSB school to curtail the distribution of this product. Runkle students had not been offered soy milk today. It was still in the backup refrigerator when the BPD arrived. The PSB Food Services department has been made aware of this issue and has removed this product from distribution until further notice. Additionally, we have contacted our vendors to inform them of this issue.

We want to thank the BPD, Department of Public Health, and our Student Health Services and Food Service staff for their prompt response and wish our Heath students a safe and speedy recovery.

Please read about some more joyful events that happened at Runkle this week. We are working hard and highly engaged in learning right now. I hope your children are sharing all the success that we see everyday.

Thank you to 1Mu parents, Wedad Alhawli and Yomen Karime, for visiting on Wednesday to teach students about Ramandan. The students loved learning about this holy month of prayer and fasting in the Islamic faith. They showed me their special lanterns and the new Curious George book, It's Ramadan. We appreciate all of our families who are willing to share their culture. Please see all of the celebrations and special dates happening in March here: https://sites.google.com/psbma.org/observances-celebrations/calendar/march

This is a picture of our students rehearsing for the First Grade Concert. I was not able to stay on Thursday morning, but I was able to hear all of their songs on Wednesday. The students loved catching me tear up during "Wish Upon a Star." We are so grateful for Ms. Sarah Gardner's dedication and talent in bringing these musical events to Runkle. There were so many families in the audience on Thursday morning. We are thrilled to have our families back in the Runkle building!

Dr. Guillory spent most of Wednesday, March 15th, visiting our students and teachers at Runkle. We did have to spend some time in my office reviewing budget information and all the important happenings at Runkle, but it is clear that spending time with our students brings our superintendent the most joy.

Third graders were treated to a presentation on Weather by Techsploration on Wednesday. Our middle school students attended a presentation on Energy and Electricity last week. PTO parent volunteer, Rubesh Jacobs, has worked for months to organize these presentations for all of our Runkle students. Other grades will experience Waves, Sounds and Light, Forces of Motion and Structural Engineering in the coming weeks. Thank you Runkle PTO!

Jason is from South Burlington, VT. He writes and illustrates books about science and nature. He does two things in his books: he tells a story, and he teaches about science and nature. Jason shared how he developed one of his most recent books, The Universe in You: A Microscopic Journey. I was able to see Jason present to third and fourth graders. As you can see, they were mesmerized. Thank you to our PTO and our librarian, Colleen Carney, for making these special events happen.

Monday, March 20th: Brookline School Committee members, Mariah Nobrega and Steven Ehrenberg, will be visiting Runkle from 9-10 am.

Tuesday, March 21st: Yale's Mixed Company Performance for grades 4-8 at 9:00 am.

Tuesday, March 21st: 8th Grade Student Basketball Players VS Runkle Staff at 2:40 pm in the gym.

Wednesday, March 22nd: Runkle School Site Council Meeting in the library, 4:15-5:30 pm.

Thursday, March 23rd: Runkle's Community Service Project: All students at Runkle will be learning about the Brookline Senior Center and then writing cards to Brookline Seniors.

Friday, March 24th: Kindergarten Snuggle and Read at 8:00 am

Friday, March 24th: Math and Science Night at Runkle, 5:30-7:30 pm.

MCAS testing begins the week of March 27th.

Donna