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The BEF was thrilled to hold our annual "Celebrating Teachers" event on Tuesday, May 6 in the BHS STEM Commons. Over 200 Brookline educators and community members were on hand to acknowledge this year's grant, award, and fellowship winners, and to hear inspiring words from this year's two winners of the Ernest R. Caverly Award for Excellence in Teaching: Lisa Rodriguez of BHS (introduced by BHS Math Department Chair Josh [...]

The BEF is proud to announce the winners of this year's Ernest R. Caverly Awards for Excellence in Teaching! Amanda Kretschmar, Pierce librarian, and Lisa Rodriguez, BHS math teacher, have won this year's prestigious honor. They will deliver speeches and be recognized along with all of this year's grant, award, and fellowship winners at the Celebrating Teachers event on May 6, 3:30pm, BHS STEM Commons. Please join us in congratulating [...]

Hanna Cha, Caldecott Honor Award-winning illustrator and author, visited the Baker School on March 6th. During her visit, Ms. Cha met with first, second, and third-grade students and educators. She shared her process for illustrating, explained how she draws inspiration from her life experiences, and discussed how she decides what to write about. She emphasized the importance of discovering one’s voice and the valuable lessons learned from making mistakes. The [...]

Lawrence School held their first ever Community Reading Day on Monday, March 3, 2025. This engaging morning for students and teachers focused on celebration of community, culture and literature, built around a shared reading of picture books. The Community Reading Day titles for this year, one for our K-3rd grade classrooms and one for 4th-6th grades, highlighted these themes.  Given the critical importance of understanding the significance of Black History [...]

In January, the BEF held our annual celebration of the Green Apple Society, our opportunity to thank our donors and raise up the work of our grant recipients. This year we were fortunate to hear from Pierce ELA teacher Marlene Goncalves and BHS Head of School Anthony Meyer about their recent Collaborative grant work, and the impact that BEF funds have on their practice and the experiences of their students [...]

The BEF's November Board meeting is typically a retreat for the Board to get to know one another and set goals and expectations for the year. This year's retreat featured special guest speakers: John Hodgman, longtime Brookline resident and one of the BEF's founders, and Deborah Brooks, the BEF's first Board president and first Executive Director. Advisory Board member Shalini Kasida moderated an informative discussion with Deborah and John, giving [...]

Another exciting 5th grade Spelling Bee is in the books! Over 50 fifth graders representing all 8 Brookline elementary schools gathered in the BHS auditorium on Sunday, November 17th to compete in the 27th annual BEF Spelling Bee. Congratulations to winner Sophia Karl of Runkle, and to runners-up Andrew Tran of Lincoln, Dani Chen and Joshua Tsai of FRR, Kinsley Ahn and Kavi Shastry of Baker, and Maxwell Jacobs of [...]

After over 40 years in Brookline Village, the BEF has moved our offices to the Baldwin School in Chestnut Hill! We are so grateful to the Public Schools of Brookline for renting us this space - we're in the old nurse's office of this historic former elementary school, along with several PSB administrative offices. We're still unpacking and getting settled, but please come visit us! Our mailing address remains the [...]

The broad community of Brookline educators came together last Tuesday to be celebrated by the BEF! At this annual event, we are proud and delighted to recognize all of this year's grant, award, and fellowship winners. The highlight of the event is the awarding of the Ernest R. Caverly Award for Excellence in Teaching - given this year to Driscoll's Olivia Reyelt and BHS's Keira Flynn-Carson.  You can read all [...]

    The BEF's annual Trivia Bee is in the books! On March 8, over 200 community members (including current and alumni parents and educators) came together in the beautiful 22 Tappan Commons for delicious food and drink, enjoyable competition, and inspiring support of Brookline educators. The event raised over $100,000 to support next year's grants and programs! Thank you to all who attended, [...]

The BEF held our annual 5th Grade Spelling Bee at Brookline High School on Sunday, November 19th. This fun and exciting tradition was wonderful as ever! Congratulations to the winner, Lucy Lawson (Baker School), and the runners-up, Miles Hainer (Pierce) and Felix Schwartz (Lincoln)! The winning word was "quintessence". Thank you to our generous sponsors, Dr. Sally Roth and Centre Pediatric Associates! Thank you also to our Pronouncer, Brookline librarian [...]

  The BEF was thrilled to host an event honoring Dan Bresman, the 2023 recipient of the Robert I. Sperber Award for Administrative Leadership. On Friday evening, October 20, over 200 students, colleagues, friends, and family gathered in the STEM Commons at Brookline High School to honor Dan. The evening featured speeches, performances, an inspiring award acceptance speech by Dan himself, and refreshments catered by BHS' own Tappan Green restaurant. [...]

  On May 9 in the BHS Auditorium the BEF hosted this year's Celebrating Teachers event - an annual gathering of educators and the broader community to celebrate all of the talented Brookline educators who have won grants, awards, and fellowships this year. The highlight of the event is always the opportunity to hear from the two winners of the Ernest R. Caverly award for Excellence in Teaching, and this [...]

The Brookline Education Foundation has a long history of supporting the Brookline Early Education Program (BEEP), and is thrilled to continue to support them with both professional development and special programs. BEEP is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year, and as part of that celebration, the students of BEEP are displaying art that they have created with their amazing art teacher, Erin Palazzolo Loparo. Erin goes to every BEEP classroom, [...]

Every five years, the BEF awards the Robert I. Sperber Award for Excellence in Administration. This year, this prestigious award was given to Dan Bresman, the Director of Brookline High School's School Within A School (SWS) program. Dan was informed of his honor by BHS Head of School Anthony Meyer, Brookline Superintendent Dr. Linus Guillory, BEF Executive Director Elizabeth Ascoli, and an assortment of BEF Board Members, SWS teachers, and [...]

Training has begun for the running of the 2023 Boston Marathon, and this year the BEF is grateful for the support of five members of Team Brookline who will be raising funds with their race to support us! Four of these runners are educators at Brookline Schools, and the fifth one is returning to support us again after running with Team Brookline for the BEF last year! Please visit our [...]

The Brookline Education Foundation's annual 5th Grade Spelling Bee was a huge and exciting success resulting in one shocked and exuberant winner and three students tied as first runners-up. 50 fifth graders from throughout the Public Schools of Brookline district gathered in the Brookline High School auditorium on Sunday, November 13th for the traditional spelling bee. Georgiana Green of the Runkle school won by being the only student out of [...]

We were so moved and proud to hear the 2022 Metzger Fellows read their essays on October 14th at the Lincoln School. This event is always profound and inspiring and this year was no different. Visit our YouTube Channel to watch the event! And click here to learn more about this year's Fellows and Margaret Metzger.

The BEF was so excited to welcome the latest in the Todd Saker Fund series of author visits: Newbery Award-winning author Jerry Craft to Brookline! Jerry visited the Heath School and the Pierce School, where he spoke to hundreds of students and signed books. His visit was wonderful, inspiring, and energizing. Click here to learn more about the BEF's Saker Fund. Thank you!

Now is the time to apply for an Idea Lab grant, if you are an educator currently employed by the Public Schools of Brookline! If you have a new idea that will bring hands-on, experiential learning to your students, we would like to grant you up to $1,000 to make your idea a reality! Simply fill out the online application, and come to pitch your idea to our committee. Grant [...]

This week, the 2022 class of Margaret Metzger Fellows are working together to write their personal essays about the craft of teaching. They represent different schools, subject areas, and grade levels from all across the Public Schools of Brookline, and their combined energies and experiences are sure to contribute to a wonderful, inspirational, and enlightening selection of essays! The BEF is so proud to host these creative and thoughtful educators [...]

IdeaLab Grant winner Molly Richard received BEF funds this year to purchase a sewing machine, a loom, and other fabric arts supplies -- and she taught her pre-K students to sew! The classroom quilt they created together was unveiled just prior to the end of school, at a playground celebration with students, parents, educators, and BEF representatives. Each student created a section of the quilt, and a matching fabric square [...]

The BEF welcomed educators and donors to our annual Celebrating Teachers event on May 10 at the Lincoln School. All recipients of grants and awards were acknowledged at the event, in particular this year's winners of the Ernest R. Caverly Award for Excellence in Teaching. Nicole Chasse, kindergarten teacher at the Florida Ruffin Ridley School, and Joslyn Vendola, math teacher in the ExCel program at Brookline High School, were this [...]

We're so grateful to Crystal Chang, Emily Edgar, Claudio Nahmias, John Nwosu, Sarah Reilly and Zoe Spearman for running the 126th Boston Marathon in support of the Brookline Education Foundation! They are working so hard to get ready, and we can't wait to line the race route on Beacon Street and cheer them on. They include a Heath parent, a Driscoll parent, a Lawrence parent, and a Pierce paraprofessional! They [...]

The BEF Teacher and Collaborative Grant Committees have awarded grants that will impact over 100 educators in the coming year! Please visit the Grants section of our website to learn more about the newest projects our educators are preparing to embark on! Thank you to our donors for making this exciting work possible!

The annual BEF Fifth Grade Spelling Bee was held on Sunday, November 14, 2021, at Brookline High School. Congratulations to the winner, Kris Barbarin of Heath School, and to the runners-up, Rav Amin of Baker School and Felice Vittolo of Pierce School! The winning word was etymology. The BEF is so grateful to all of the volunteers who made this event possible! Thank you to our pronouncer, Brookline Librarian Caroline [...]

The 2021 Margaret Metzger Fellows event was held on Friday evening, October 15, 2021 at the Lincoln School. Click here to watch the event! Congratulations and thanks to all of this year's participants, including John Andrews, English Department Chair at Brookline High School, and the 2021 Fellows:

Meet today's featured BEF Team Brookline runner - Stephanie Guseh! Here's a note from Steph: Hello! My name is Steph Guseh and I am training for my first ever marathon in support of the Brookline Education Foundation! I have 3 kids - Jamie (7), Nora (5) and Mae (2) who all love Runkle. Jamie is thrilled to be in Mrs. Chen's class in 2nd grade this year and [...]

As we are closing out this school year, a year like no other in our lifetimes, it’s amazing to think about where we started the year and how far we have come. In large part, we owe the fact that we are safely back at school to our amazing school nurses, led [...]

We are pleased to announce this year's Caverly Award winners for excellence in teaching! Watch Celebrating Teachers Francesca Stark Driscoll School Fifth-Grade Betsy Davis Brookline High School World Language After a hiatus last year, we are so pleased to announce the 2021 Caverly Award winners this year. Since 1984, the Ernest R. Caverly Award has been presented to [...]

The Brookline Education Foundation and the Metzger Committee are pleased to announce the educators selected for the 2021 Margaret Metzger Fellowships: Susan Balogh, Baker School, 7th Grade, Social Studies; Zac Broken Rope, Brookline High School, SWS, English; Alisa Conner, Brookline High School, Spanish; Will Gordon, Lawrence School, Paraprofessional; Colleen Kavanagh, Runkle School, 5th Grade; Wan Wang, Driscoll School, Mandarin; [...]

The BEF is pleased to announce it is launching a new free webinar speaker series entitled Equity in Education. Over the course of the next few months, we will examine equity, in its various forms, in the public schools of Brookline through the lens of teachers who have received BEF grants to do this important work. Our first webinar was held on February 25th and highlighted SEED (Seeking Educational [...]

Runkle School Special Education teacher, Meghan Walsh, sent an email to the BEF thanking us for the Collaborative Grant she and her colleagues received. Below is her email and story (shared with permission): Dear Members of the Brookline Education Foundation, I wanted to take the time, once again, to thank you for your extremely generous collaborative grant for the 2020-2021 school year. Because of you, I was able [...]

Brookline Food Pantry Brookline Community Foundation Brookline Interactive Group Brookline Music School Brookline Teen Center Brookline Library Foundation Brookline Symphony Orchestra Puppet Showplace Theater Brookline High School Innovation Fund Brookline Community Mental Health Center Brookline Arts Center Steps to Success Voices Boston The Brookline Education Foundation is happy to announce its collaboration with other nonprofit organizations in Brookline to create a campaign called Be More Brookline! [...]

The BEF is pleased to announce a new annual award for middle-school teachers in memory of David E. Pradell, a beloved teacher at Lawrence and Driscoll Schools for over 30 years. This monetary award will be presented each year to one middle-school Teacher Grant recipient whose work will stimulate students' imagination and curiosity; help students develop self-assurance and self-esteem; encourage student collaboration and/or instill an abiding sense of [...]

The BEF allocated $100,000 to support Brookline's teachers in building a robust remote learning model for the Fall. In March, the school year was turned on its head as we all faced the first 100 days of a worldwide pandemic. Given the need to pivot all learning to a new, uncharted, remote environment, it's no wonder that our teachers, students and school community struggled. While online teaching [...]

Farewell to Outgoing Board President Emily Dolbear; Welcome to Catherine Burke!  As we draw to a close of this crazy, topsy-turvy school year, the BEF wants to take a moment to thank outgoing Board president Emily Dolbear. Emily has served on the BEF Board since 2013 and has been a valuable member of the Executive Committee from her second year. As a Runkle and [...]

During this time of challenges, the work here at the Brookline Education Foundation (BEF) continues — albeit remotely. In mid-April, our Board committees awarded 32 grants, totaling more than $200,000, to Brookline teachers. We have also responded directly to the COVID-19 crisis by funding a special Districtwide Grant to immediately train teachers in remote learning and online curriculum development instruction. Although we had to cancel our Trivia Bee fundraising [...]

The BEF Idea Lab grants committee awarded 19 new Idea Lab grants last week. After hearing teachers give their pitches for their hands-on ideas to be carried out in the classroom this year, the committee awarded 19 grants to teachers from many schools in the District, ranging in grades from pre-K through the high school. The committee was excited to see [...]

On Friday, October 4th, over 200 people joined us for the 2019 Margaret Metzger Fellowship Event where our 6 Fellows read their essays to a packed house! While the essays were varied reflections on teaching and working with students; all were extremely touching. We are so lucky to have [...]

Last year, the Brookline Education Foundation gave "A Gift of Music" to the Performing Arts Department of the Public Schools of Brookline, under the leadership of K-12 Curriculum Coordinator Kenny Kozol. This gift was funded through the 35th Anniversary Gala of 2016. After an application and evaluation process, the BEF funded this musical project, recognizing that the Performing Arts department is an important and valuable part of [...]

On October 24th and 25th, children's book author, Lesa Cline-Ransome, visited four Brookline School Libraries. The author of award-winning Finding Langston, as well as Game Changers about Venus and Serena Williams, Satchell Paige, and Before She was Harriet gave presentations at Baker, Lincoln, Runkle, and Driscoll. She spoke about her early beginnings, what is involved in [...]

Have you always wanted to run the Boston Marathon? Team Brookline is a great way to get an official bib number the historic Boston Marathon and raise money for a great cause all at the same time. Team Brookline is a group of local non-profit organizations that receive official bib numbers in order to help them fundraise.  The Brookline Education Foundation is lucky enough to be one of these [...]