August 23, 2022

Welcome to the 2022-2023 school year!

We hope our students and teachers (and families) are having a great first week. We hope you will join the PTA and Brooks community at the Back to School Picnic and Movie Night this Friday, 8/26 at 6pm on the playground, and join us on Monday, 8/29 at 6:15pm in the cafeteria (or on Zoom) for our first PTA meeting of the school year (babysitting and pizza 🍕 will be provided for those who attend in person). We have A LOT of information to share with you about the events and student programs we have planned for the upcoming school year, and the support we need from our Brooks families to make it all happen. Ms. Hess will provide an update as well. 

Please take a few moments this week to check out volunteer opportunities, subscribe to our events calendar, and make sure you are set up to receive communications from Ms. Hess and the PTA all year long. Oh, and please renew your PTA membership (or join if you're new), and verify your volunteer status.

Your gifts of time and membership dues help us support our school throughout the year.

We are looking forward to serving alongside you to support our amazing students and incredibly talented teachers and staff this year. Thank you for your partnership and support!

Warmly,

Armita Cohen

President, Brooks PTA

Mom to Axel (4th) and Juliette (1st)

and the rest of the PTA Executive Committee:

President-Elect: Maya Mahoney

Immediate Past President: Kara Macek

Treasurer: Rick Westfall

Secretary: Lina Lipke

VP of Fundraising: Sarah Ahn

Fundraising Events Co-Chair: Ali Loud

VP Programs: Virginia Yates

VP Communications: Marty Zager

Hello Naomi Brooks Parents and Families!

Welcome to the 2022-2023 school year—it’s going to be a great year! Please consider serving as a Room Parent for your child’s class. The parent volunteers who serve as Room Parents are an essential part of the Brooks community. We would like to have two Room Parents for each homeroom class. They will work closely with the teacher to identify support needs such as organizing craft parties and classroom Mystery Readers, helping teachers find needed resources or materials, providing continuous communication between the teacher and parents on PTA and classroom activities, and coordinating grade-wide events.

If you are interested in being a Room Parent for your child's homeroom teacher or if you have already spoken with your child's teacher about serving as a Room Parent this year, please fill out the short survey found here: https://forms.gle/sd3XwTT4YuioJgmUA. If you have any questions, my email address is bryanne.cordeiro@gmail.com. I look forward to hearing from many of you soon and to working with all our wonderful Room Parents this year to make this a great school year!

Thank you,

Bryanne Cordeiro Reynolds

Naomi Brooks Room Parent Coordinator 2022 - 2023

ParentSquare will replace Blackboard Connect and several other texting and email platforms as the new division-wide communication platform. ParentSquare, will allow ACPS to unify communication from the division, schools and classrooms to K-12 families under one umbrella.

With ParentSquare families will be able to:

• Receive messages from school via email, text or mobile app  
• Choose to receive information as it comes (Instant) or all at once at around 6:00pm (Daily Digest)
• Communicate in your preferred language
• Two-way texting with automated translation between staff and families
• Receive attendance notifications with the option to send in a digital note to excuse your student’s absence
• Sign up for parent-teacher conferences
• Sign permission slips and more all from your computer or mobile device

Learn more and download the app

Ms. Tio is kindly asking for help in collecting art supplies for the new 2022-2023 school year.

If each parent that is able could purchase the following for their own kids, and maybe an extra that Ms. Tio could give to the kids whose parents are not able, the students will be set for the year!

Crayola (or other) 10 pack markers

Crayola (or other) 24 pack crayons

Crayola (or other) colored pencils

Ms. Tio plans to keep the art kits in her classroom for each student to use during art class. It would be awesome if some parents could also buy boxes of gallon slider ziploc bags...we will label one bag for each student.

Thank you SO much for your help!!!

Please join us for the first PTA meeting of the year on Monday, August 29 at 6:15pm at Brooks and meet the new Executive Committee members for 2022-2023! Free pizza and childcare will be available.

We will simulcast the meeting over Zoom for those that prefer to attend virtually.

We want you to BEE involved this year! We need your help to bring back your favorite PTA programs and ensure we are able to continue investing in our students and teachers as the PTA has done for many years.

There are many different ways to help -- including by writing grant applications, sign-up geniuses, helping setup evening or weekend events, emailing ACPS and the city, or simply ordering supplies. We will need help coordinating programs and events for students and teachers.

If you are interested in learning more about how you can give back to the school next year, please see our volunteer opportunities page or contact Armita Cohen, PTA President for 2022-2023, or Maya Mahoney, President Elect (PTA President for 2023-2024). 

• August 22: First Day of School!
• August 26: Back to School Picnic & Movie Night
• August 29: First PTA Meeting at 6:15pm (At Brooks)
• September 2-5: Labor Day Weekend - NO SCHOOL
• September 24: Fall Festival
• September 26: Rosh Hashanah Observed (NO SCHOOL)



STAY CONNECTED

• Make sure you’ve subscribed to Ms. Hess' weekly emails and ACPS updates.
• Get PTA announcements on your phone via GroupMe (New for 2022-2023)
• Email brooks-bees+subscribe@googlegroups.com to receive emails. Like our Facebook page and follow Brooks PTA on Twitter.
• Miss an email? Looking for PTA meeting minutes? Catch up on our website at brookspta.org
• Need internet access? Submit an Internet Access request.
• Need to add school closings to your calendar? Import the Brooks PTA calendar!