A missing 86-year-old Massachusetts woman has been found after police requested the public’s help.
Ranina Ignatova left her apartment at the 1800 block of Beacon Street in Brookline around 1:45 a.m. Wednesday.
Police did not go into any further detail, but confirmed shortly before 2:00 p.m. that she had been located.
rookline Police arrested a West Roxbury man after he allegedly touched a woman in a CVS with his exposed genitals on July 23. Police charged Jamal Josephs, 32, of Ridgecrest Terr, in West Roxbury with indecent assault and battery, and two counts of open and gross conduct.
A little after 1:00 p.m. a woman was shopping at the CVS at 1322 Beacon Street. She was standing in the hair care aisle when someone came up very close to her and then allegedly bumped into the woman. When she turned around she saw he had bumped into her with his exposed genitals, according to the police report.
The man ran away, but the another woman’s husband followed him onto a 66 bus and told the police officer who was interviewing what he called a visibly upset woman in the CVS this. The officer stepped outside and could see the bus stopped in front of the Bank of America and that it flashed its emergency notification lights, indicating there was an issue according to the police report.
The police officer made his way to the bus, and when the driver opened the door for the officer he said he immediately saw Josephs, who he recognized from the security footage and whose picture he’d sent out to other units. He noted that Josephs’ zipper was down and he had a box cutter sticking out of his pants pockets.
The officer arrested Josephs for indecently touching a woman with his exposed genitals without her consent. And intentionally exposing his genitals to people in a public setting causing them to be shocked and offended.
This incident comes after a spate of other indecent assaults in Brookline, including an incident earlier this month where a man was arrested after he came up and slapped a woman’s behind near the corner of Sewall and St. Paul Avenue. And another incident where a woman reported she was grabbed in a private part near the corner of Gibbs and Naples roads.
The Department of Justice defines sexual assault as “any type of sexual contact or behavior that occurs without the explicit consent of the recipient.”
According to USLegal.com indecent assault is an assault that is sexual in nature and without consent. It is considered a sex crime.
Arrest does not imply conviction.
Brookline Music School’s Beatles Summer Project musicians will celebrate the 50th Anniversary of The Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band with a performance re-creation of the album at the historic Coolidge Corner Theater on Sunday, August 6, 2017 at 10:30 a.m.
Now in its fourth season, the Beatles Summer Project, brings together local musicians of all ages and skills to learn, practice, rehearse and perform a featured Beatles album from start to finish. This season pays homage to the legendary and iconic Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, which was released 50 years ago on June 1, 1967.
Directed by Brookline Music School’s Jazz/Rock Ensemble Coordinator John Purcell, this program gives vocalists and instrumentalists of all types the opportunity to celebrate The Beatles by learning and reimagining their music.
For more about the Beatles Summer Project, please click here.
Sunday, August 6, 2017
10:30 a.m.
Coolidge Corner Theater
290 Harvard Street
Brookline, MA 02446
Tickets are $7.50 and are available online and at the theater.
Seating is limited; purchasing tickets in advance is recommended.
The Brookline Police Department’s “Offense Based Enforcement” program is underway. In addition to the regular enforcement, officers will address certain types of incidents, crimes or offenses which need further attention.
The first Offense Enforcement is Texting While Driving (ch.90 s. 13B). The approach will be different from our usual type of enforcement and will be conducted once or twice a week during the Summer.
This enforcement is intended to educate the public about the dangers of distracted driving. Through this education we hope to provide a safer Brookline for everyone!
Remember, it is still a violation to text even if you are stopped in traffic!
The BPD is pleased to announce the promotion of four of its officers this week!
Officer John Canney and Officer Robert Teahan were promoted to the rank of Sergeant.
Sergeant Michael Raskin and Sergeant Jennifer Paster were promoted to the rank of Lieutenant.
Congratulations to all!
Chief Daniel C. O’Leary is pleased to announce that a team of assessors from the Massachusetts Police Accreditation Commission is scheduled to arrive on Monday July 24th to begin examining various aspects of the Brookline Police Department’s policies and procedures, operations and facilities.
Verification by the Assessment Team that the Department meets the Commission’s standards is part of a voluntary process to maintain state Accreditation — a self-initiated evaluation process by which police departments strive to meet and maintain standards that have been established for the profession, by the profession.
The Massachusetts Police Accreditation Program consists of 257 mandatory standards as well as 125 optional standards. In order to achieve accreditation status, the Department must meet all applicable mandatory standards as well as 65% of the optional standards. More information can be found on MPAC’s website: here.
Achieving and maintaining MPAC Accredited status is a highly prized recognition of law enforcement professional excellence. Anyone interested in learning more about this program is invited to call Chief O’Leary or the Department’s Accreditation Manager, Sgt. Paster at 617-264-6437.
The Brookline Public Safety Communications Center is currently accepting applicants for full-time Emergency Telecommunications Dispatchers. Candidates for the Emergency Telecommunications Dispatcher position must successfully pass a computer based pre-employment exam in order to be considered for employment. The Brookline Public Safety Communications Center and the Town of Brookline Human Resources Department will schedule each candidate with a date and time to take the exam.
A candidate for the E-911 Dispatcher position must be willing to work all shifts, including nights, weekends, and holidays. Candidates must possess the ability to earn and maintain all dispatch-related certifications, including those for CPR, Emergency Medical Dispatch (EMD), and CJIS. Candidates must possess a High School Diploma or Government Equivalency Degree (GED).
Other prerequisites include; superior keyboard, computer and communication skills as well as the ability to handle multiple incidents simultaneously in a stressful environment. Experience is preferred but not required.
Additionally, candidates for the position are required to undergo a thorough background investigation, including, but not limited to employment, financial and criminal background. Starting salary is $20.69 per hour plus benefits.
Please submit Resume and Cover Letter by July 14, 2017 to:
BrooklineJobs@Brooklinema.gov or
Town of Brookline
Human Resources Division
333 Washington Street
Brookline, MA, 02445
The Town of Brookline recognizes and values diversity as a vital characteristic of the town. All qualified individuals will receive consideration for employment and advancement without regard to race, color, ethnicity, gender (including pregnancy), sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, disability, age, religious creed, ancestry, national origin, military or veteran status, genetic information, marital status, receipt of public
benefits (including housing subsidies), family status (e.g. because one has or does not have children), or other protected classes as defined by the Town, State and Federal law. The Town of Brookline supports and complies with the MA CORI reform law.
Turn it down: At 6:26 a.m. Brookline police received a report that a man was using an industrial lawn mower and causing a lot of noise on Grove Street.
Accident: At 7:43 a.m. Brookline Police received a report of an accident at the intersection of Carlton Street and Commonwealth Avenue. The caller reported that the driver, described as a white man, stopped, disagreed there was any damage, and left without exchanging any information.
Counterfeit money: A 5:16 p.m. a manager at 294 Harvard St. reported they found a counterfeit $10 bill.
Erratic operation: At 9:49 a.m. a caller reported that a grey Acura was driving erratically and went through a red light at the intersection of Babcock and Harvard streets.
Gag reel: At 12:37 p.m. a caller reported that there was a group of eight people vomiting and filming outside of 111 Cypress Street.
Some more change taken: At 8:10 a.m. a caller reported that their car had been rummaged through while parked at their residence on University Road.
On Monday morning several passersby ducked into the alcove across the street from the Gap on Harvard Street and went to open the door to the Panera only to be greeted by a locked door and a sign. On Sunday June 18, 2017, a sign in the window of the Coolidge Corner Panera announced the location was closing.
“Dear Valued Customers, This location will be closing today at 8 p.m. permanently. We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience, please visit us at our nearest location in the Landmark Center by Fenway, located at 201 Brookline Avenue,” it read.
The location did not show up on the Panera corporate website.
The closing comes just days after Panera released the news that digital sales – those made via mobile, web, or kiosk – had surpassed the $1 Billion mark annually and might double in 2019 for the entire company.
Panera moved into the space that is now tucked between two banks in one of the largest ground-floor retail spaces in Brookline was shuttered for years after the upscale grocery store Zathmary’s closed. In 2007 Panera announced it was moving in.
Since then it has been a popular spot with young and old alike. In the morning it was often packed with older folks reading papers and business people meeting up for coffee. After school it was a popular place for middle schoolers to go after school and until close, it was often filled with high schoolers and college students studying.
The Brookline Chamber of Commerce held coffee networking events there every once in a while, but only found out through word of mouth that Panera was closing. “We don’t even know anything,” said Debbie Good Miller of the chamber.
Panera representatives were not able to return request for comment in time for publication. When they do, we will update.
Brookline Bancorp, Inc. (NASDAQ:BRKL) was downgraded by equities researchers at BidaskClub from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note issued to investors on Tuesday.
Separately, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods cut Brookline Bancorp, Inc. from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and cut their price target for the stock from $17.00 to $16.50 in a research note on Thursday, April 27th.
Shares of Brookline Bancorp, Inc. (BRKL) traded down 1.71% during midday trading on Tuesday, hitting $14.35. The stock had a trading volume of 153,965 shares. Brookline Bancorp, Inc. has a one year low of $10.40 and a one year high of $17.45. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $14.21 and a 200-day moving average of $15.32. The company has a market cap of $1.10 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.13 and a beta of 0.95.
Brookline Bancorp, Inc. (NASDAQ:BRKL) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 26th. The bank reported $0.19 EPS for the quarter, hitting the Thomson Reuters’ consensus estimate of $0.19. Brookline Bancorp, Inc. had a return on equity of 7.54% and a net margin of 19.19%. The business had revenue of $69 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $56.36 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.18 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was up 20.4% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts forecast that Brookline Bancorp, Inc. will post $0.78 EPS for the current fiscal year.
The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, May 26th. Investors of record on Friday, May 12th were paid a $0.09 dividend. This represents a $0.36 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.47%. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, May 10th. Brookline Bancorp, Inc.’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 48.00%.
In other news, Director John M. Pereira acquired 10,000 shares of the business’ stock in a transaction on Thursday, April 27th. The shares were purchased at an average price of $14.50 per share, for a total transaction of $145,000.00. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, General Counsel Michael W. Mccurdy sold 4,895 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, June 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $14.20, for a total value of $69,509.00. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders own 2.85% of the company’s stock.
Hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. State of Alaska Department of Revenue boosted its stake in shares of Brookline Bancorp, Inc. by 2.1% in the first quarter. State of Alaska Department of Revenue now owns 7,790 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $121,000 after buying an additional 160 shares during the last quarter. Victory Capital Management, Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Brookline Bancorp, Inc. during the first quarter valued at about $161,000. Airain, Ltd. purchased a new stake in shares of Brookline Bancorp during the first quarter valued at about $173,000. Eqis Capital Management, Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Brookline Bancorp, Inc. during the first quarter valued at about $213,000. Finally, OppenheimerFunds, Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Brookline Bancorp, Inc. during the first quarter valued at about $218,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 72.95% of the company’s stock.
About Brookline Bancorp, Inc.
Brookline Bancorp, Inc. operates as a multi-bank holding company for Brookline Bank and its subsidiaries; Bank Rhode Island and its subsidiaries; First Ipswich Bank and its subsidiaries, and Brookline Securities Corp. As a commercially-focused financial institution with approximately 50 banking offices in greater Boston, the north shore of Massachusetts and Rhode Island, the Company offers commercial, business and retail banking services, including cash management products, online banking services, consumer and residential loans and investment services in central New England. The Company’s activities include acceptance of commercial; municipal and retail deposits; origination of mortgage loans on commercial and residential real estate located principally in Massachusetts and Rhode Island; origination of commercial loans and leases to small- and mid-sized businesses; investment in debt and equity securities, and the offering of cash management and investment advisory services.
Officer Katie talking to Driscoll 5th Graders about how to be good friends to each other, how to make smart, healthy and safe choices and giving some reminders on how they can stay safe this Summer.
At the beginning of every January, the robotics team is given an assignment for their competition, and the clock starts ticking. They have six weeks to build a robot.
The Nutrons Robotics team of Brookline High School, Boston Latin School and Revere High School recently won their subdivision competition and moved on to the Einstein round at the World Championships. They also won the Chairman’s Award for community outreach.
According to junior and team member Nathan McGuire, the team won their community outreach award for their work with middle school robotics teams throughout Boston and Revere.
“We helped start a lot of other teams and run competitions and programs for kids who don’t have access to the resources we do,” McGuire said, “just trying to get them more interested in STEM things.”
During building season, students on the team spend every day except Fridays and the weekends planning and building in small subgroups, according to junior Lydia Xing.
“We have the mechanical, electrical, programming and non-tech and outreach subgroup, and they all work on their own things,” Xing said. “Mechanical obviously works on the design, and building the robot. Program programs it, electrical wires it up and outreach does social media and outreach.”
According to McGuire, the robotics team enjoys the level of professionalism given to their team.
“I’ve always really liked building things, like legos, but this is using real tools and real software, and everything we’re doing is the same thing that actual engineers are doing, which is pretty cool,” McGuire said.
According to junior Victor Mercola, each competition has its own distinct theme.
“The goal of this year’s game, called “Steamworks,” was to make your robot, give gears to your side, and shoot small wiffle balls into a large equivalent of a basketball hoop, which was themed to look like a boiler,” Mercola said.
According to Xing, one of the best parts of competing worldwide is meeting students from other countries.
“This year, there were teams from Israel, Turkey, Brazil and the Netherlands. It’s really international,” Xing said. “There aren’t tons of activities where you can say that.”
Moving forward, the team hopes to expand their presence in the school, according to Mercola.
“It would be nice to have more influence in the school, because we’re one of the best teams, and even though it’s a combined effort, it should be celebrated,” Mercola said.
One young teenager from Brookline is making a difference in an artistic effort to give back where he has been given a second chance. Evan Yu’s artwork is being featured this month at HomeGoods stores where his artwork can be seen on a reusable shopping bags there.
The colorful limited edition blue and green bag features an ocean scene with fish and coral. And it is on sale for $0.99 in participating HomeGoods stores across the country as part of their 16th annual “HomeGoods Helps Families Fight Cancer” campaign to benefit the Jimmy Fund, according to a spokesperson for Dana Farber. For every bag sold, HomeGoods will contribute $0.50 to the Jimmy Fund.
Evan Yu, and a rising senior at Brookline High School student, is himself a pediatric cancer patient at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute’s Jimmy Fund Clinic in Boston. He was treated for acute lymphoblastic leukemia. I am feeling better. He finished treatment recently but has to go in for a monthly check in.
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In late 2013 Evan was experiencing muscle and back pain, but he was also doing rock climbing, so everyone thought that was the cause of the pain. But one morning in early 2014 he could not get out of bed. His mom took him into urgent care, where they had blood work done. The next day the results came back and they told him he needed to go to the hospital the next day. He spent six weeks in the hospital and then after that it was weekly visits to Jimmy Fund clinic sometimes more for him as he underwent treatment. A couple of years later, and he was done with treatments, said his mom. Now he is down to monthly visits. It was one one of these visits while Evan was waiting for some lab work that staff suggested some activities. Evan does not always participate in the activities but when he heard it was drawing, he thought he would join. The staff told him it was for a competition, but Evan said he did not think too much about winning.
“I drew fish cause it’s one of the things I can draw really well,” he said. “That’s like my one specialty.”
It served him well. Out of all the submissions, Evan and another girl’s drawings were the two selected to grace the cover of HomeGoods Shopping bags for the month and for donations.
Melissa Yu, his mother, said an official at Dana Farber told her they printed out 50,000 bags.
“When this whole thing came about and I realized the magnitude of it I was amazed,” she said. “To think that his drawing is going to help contribute that much money back to Dana Farber is just amazing.”
The family has bought a number of the bags to give out as presents, and family and friends have told her they have bought the bag in Texas, Florida and New York.
In his spare time, Evan enjoys kayaking and fishing as well as drawing and watching the Boston Bruins. He is just finishing up an art class and he is getting ready to start touring colleges and sitting down to write some college essays this summer. He says he is leaning toward mechanical engineering.
“It’s just a real great honor to be a part of this,” said his mother. “The impact of his drawing and sales of the bag to go back to Dana Farber for research is just great.”
In addition to sales of the limited edition reusable shopping bag, more than 415 HomeGoods stores are participating in a fundraising campaign that goes until June 28, 2017. Shoppers can participate by making a contribution at the register. And all contributions will benefit the Jimmy Fund, which supports pediatric and adult cancer care and research at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston, MA.
Chief O’Leary visited the Sean Roberts Challenger League Super Stars for their year end celebration this week.
The Challenger League is a baseball league for children with a wide variety of disabilities. Brookline officers assisted as coaches throughout the year and worked with parents, volunteers, fellow coaches and the young players to make the season a success.
Thank you Brookline Youth Baseball for sponsoring this great program.
Watch as trained fleas swing on the trapeze, high dive into a pool of water, walk along a tightrope, and many other amazing feats! Great for children ages 3 and up, no registration required.
The event will take place as follows:
June 29th
11:00 a.m. – 11:45 a.m.
Putterham – Meeting Room
959 West Roxbury Parkway
Chestnut Hill, MA 02467
From the Brookline High School stage to the Broadway stage, “Hamilton” actor and 2006 BHS graduate Nik Walker shared his passion for the arts with the Brookline community at a June 12th event, co-hosted by Kenny Kozol, K-12 Performing Arts Curriculum Coordinator of Public Schools of Brookline, with support from the BHS Friends of the Performing Arts (FOPA), The Brookline Teen Center, and the Performing Arts Department of the Public Schools of Brookline.
Walked disclosed insight and anecdotes, reminding the audience of the evolution and hard work that it takes to continuously become a better performer. Walker answered questions from performing arts teachers, Summer Williams, Mary Mastandrea, and Mark VanDerzee, all of whom were teachers of his while at BHS. He also took questions from audience members including, one stretch where he and two young students exchanged lines from Hamilton.
During his time at BHS, Walker performed in a variety of musicals and plays; he credits BHS and these experiences to helping him flourish as an artist. Walker’s first BHS play was “Antony and Cleopatra”, in which he performed alongside upperclassmen.
Walker paid tribute to the BHS Performing Arts program and its incredible teachers by saying, “I was so blessed to start my performing arts education in the Brookline Public School system. I cannot begin to tell you how deeply each of the Brookline Performing Arts departments shaped my drive, my artistic comprehension and style; they taught me the importance of finding my own voice, instead of chasing others’, of working within the community to serve the community. Every play or concert I did here was a free master class in critical thinking and expression, and each teacher left their indelible mark on me in ways I am still discovering today.“
During the evening, Walker explained how he moved from high school theater, to local theater, to regional theater before making it to Broadway. He shared how teachers at Brookline High School, including Williams and VanDerzee, two of the founders of Company One Theatre in Boston, supported his growth.
“[Company One] changed my life, because not only did I see the kind of theater that I wanted to make, but I also saw what it took to make that kind of theater,” Walker said. “I wanted to be in a position when I got to New York where literally the only thing that was going to stop me from doing this would be me.”
On the regional circuit, Walker performed in “Miss Saigon,” “Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots” and more, making appearances at places such as the La Jolla Playhouse in La Jolla and The Old Globe in San Diego, California, as well as the Denver Center in Colorado.
Kenny Kozol, K-12 Performing Arts Curriculum Coordinator of Public Schools of Brookline, who emceed the event, commented on the goals of the high school’s programs, “Really our performing arts program here at the high school and at the elementary schools is not about the people who necessarily go to work on Broadway or in film or in major dance companies or play music around the world, of which we have many, but it’s about all people realizing their creativity; having a chance to make music, to participate in drama, to participate in dance because this a part of the human soul and a part of what keeps us ticking as people.”
Facing a dwindling endowment and similarly weak revenue projections, Fenway-based Wheelock College has put its 10-room, 4,987-square-foot president’s house at 295 Kent Street in Brookline on the sales market for $3.1 million.
The school is also considering a sale of its Colchester House dorm off Kent Street as a redevelopment site or a single-family home (the Brookline property used to be a private mansion). It currently houses about two dozen students, but, quite simply, Wheelock does not need the space.
It needs the money. According to the Globe’s Dierdre Fernandes, Wheelock is not only struggling financially, but it is coming off “several years of controversies, including a leadership shakeup, federal discrimination complaints from two Jewish faculty members, and greater scrutiny from academic accreditors.”
It has gotten so bad that the liberal arts college is considering doing away with undergraduate degrees and focusing solely on graduate studies.
Included here are shots of the president’s house, which, like the school itself, looks as if it could use a little TLC.
A small crowd of maybe 100 people gathered under yellow tents Tuesday afternoon as temperatures reached the upper 90s at the Riverway Park to celebrate former Gov. Michael Dukakis and his wife Kitty for their conservation work, particularly in Brookline.
“It is with deep appreciation of their commitment to the Olmsted Legacy in Massachusetts; with gratitude for their contributions to the protection, preservation and restoration of the Emerald Necklace; and in honor of their lifelong stewardship of our parks and open space that Riverway Park in Brookline, Massachusetts is dedicated to the Honorable Michael and Kitty Dukakis,” reads the stone plaque.
The recognition came out of a Town Meeting resolution to find a way to recognize the many accomplishments of this couple, said Director of Parks and Open Spaces Erin Gallentine.
Town Meeting decided to establish a Selectmen’s Committee “the Dukakis Recognition Committee” to find appropriate way to celebrate their accomplishments, that was led by then-Selectmen Jesse Mermell along with five others.
The met a number of times and discussed various spots including, inside town hall, outside of town hall, schools and the parks and ultimately someone recommended Riverway Park.
“It’s close to the home where they raised three children and still live today; it’s one of six parks that make up the Emerald Necklace; and under his administration as governor, he championed a $17 million bond bill to restore Olmsted parks across the commonwealth and it really helped revitalize the whole urban park movement,” said Gallentine.
And most importantly it is part of the former governor’s daily walk to Northeastern University where he teaches. Dukakis is known to walk, bag in hand picking up trash on his way and Kitty is often seen walking their as well.
“Everyone associates them with Riverway Park. So Parks and Rec voted as that being an appropriate tribute and voted to dedicate Riverway Park,” said Gallentine.
“It was a lovely afternoon and a wonderful tribute to an incredibly deserving couple. The governor and Kitty Dukakis have long understood the importance of Fredrick Law Olmsted’s system and the significance it has for democracy today. So looking at their many accomplishments it is really fitting to recognize them in this place where it all comes together,” she said.
The area is close to the Longwood T stop, and the Parks and Open Spaces division did all of the landscaping, which takes from the same plant palate as Frederick Law Olmsted’s original designs, and masonry work on the granite plaque. Each day as they were out working on it, they’d see Dukakis and sometimes jokingly ask him if he wanted to take a peek at their progress (he waited til the ceremony).
All of the work was funded privately. The entire event, including the installation was all paid for with private funding, according to Gallentine.
Dr. Keith Lezama will become the Interim Director of Brookline’s Metropolitan Council for Educational Opportunity (METCO) Program for the 2017-2018 school year. This leadership change in the METCO Program will be effective on July 1, 2017. Dr Lezama has worked for the Public Schools of Brookline since 2006 and has served as the Coordinator of METCO at Brookline High School since 2008. Prior to becoming Brookline High School’s METCO Coordinator, Dr. Lezama was a paraprofessional at BHS. Dr. Lezama is well known in the BHS community for providing tremendous support to students academically and socially, while also challenging them to take and succeed in higher level courses. He has been a strong collaborator with high school staff and leadership to help students achieve academic excellence.
Dr. Lezama is a graduate of Brookline High School and of the METCO Program. He earned his Bachelor of Arts degree with a concentration in Education from Emmanuel College, and a Master’s Degree in Educational Leadership from Simmons. He received his Doctor of Education in K-12 Educational Leadership from Northeastern University. Dr. Lezama is also a liaison to Emmanuel College’s Department of Education in the area of multicultural education, and recently completed his tenured role as an advisor to The College Board’s national conference on diversity.
We warmly welcome Dr. Lezama to his new role, and are pleased to have him continue to serve Brookline in this new capacity.
One Brookline teachers aid is going to Switzerland for a special UN human rights program after community members pitched in and helped him via GoFundMe. Though he was orginally hesitant to start a fundraising page, within two days of posting it, he had raised enough money to get him to the UN.
“Within 48 hours I exceeded the goal. And people are still donating. It’s just overwhelming that people wnat to support his kind of work,” he said.
Ronald Cross is a special education teacher’s aid at Brookline. It’s his first year there and he loves his job. He came the Boston area – he lives in Roxbury – to start a new life. One that was different from the life he lived in rural Maryland. What he found was a community and a passion for helping others, whether through politics, or civic engagement.
In days he is headed to the UN as a part of a Quaker scholarship. It is his first time across the pond and he’s more than excited about it.
Since moving to Boston he has taken on a number of hats, including chairman of the greater Boston young Democrats. The youth wing of the Democratic Party for the state.
“I’m a Quaker and part of being a Quaker is being a super activist and helping the world be a better place through non violent means,” said Cross. So he heard about an opportunity recently to go to the UN in Switzerland through friends in his Quaker community. It would involve everything from food security work and refugee work to better understanding how the UN works. There was an intensive application process but it intriguied him. What if he could learn something and bring it back to the Boston area to help people here.
Not the type of person to sit back and do nothing, he set to work, got some references and held his breath. There was nothing for two months. Then on his birthday he got an email it started out as an apology for taking so long to get back. He continued to hold his breath until he read the part where they chose him as one of the participants.
“I couldn’t breathe. I’m telling you, I could not breathe. I called like 10 people. What an amazing birthday present,” he said.
There was one small hitch. Although the program funded room and board once he got to Switzerland, it did not fund the cost of getting him there. He made less than $17,000 working as a part-time para and despite having other roles, he still wasn’t sure how he would come up with the airfare and isnurance money he needed to go.
The mentors he reached out to suggested GoFundMe. That felt awkward, he said. “But I realized this was part of me wanting to do good. And others might want to plug into that mission.”
So he created his GoFundMe page and was asking for $500. Now he is set.
“My goal is to not only learn, but to bring back strategies and resources that can have a direct impact on the people who live right beside us and work with us and need us more than we know. When I return I will be working with specific focus groups that target help for women, LGBTQ issues, food security, and climate change. I am asking for your sponsorship as I embark on this mission,” he wrote on his GoFundMe page.
Politically active
When Cross came to Boston from Maryland without a college degree and without a plan he had also only engaged politically three times before in his life. And that was voting for presidents. But it was here between Boston and Brookline that he realized people who are involved in politicas are just people who show up and care about things and want things to change.
“I’m a person. I care about stuff. I can do this,” he remembers thinking. He got in touch with city counselor. Got invoved with Democratic Party and worked his way up.
“I can really do a lot of good just by showing up. And now I’ve got a huge platform to reach a lot of people and I definitely don’t take that for granted,” he said.
In his work with the Democratic Party Cross said he’s helped group contact legislators and push to support meals on wheels and other similar programs.
“Working 10 years in corporate America not one time have I felt this good,” he said. “I could not be more fortune than I feel right now.”
Brookline will join yogis from all over the world on Tuesday, June 20, 2017, to celebrate the second International Day of Yoga, which also marks the Summer Solstice. Popular local yoga teachers will conduct a free open-air yoga class, 7:00 p.m. – 8:30 p.m., at Cypress Field, directly across from Brookline High School, 115 Greenough Street. (Rain location is the high school gym across the street). All Brookline residents are invited to participate, no experience necessary. The yoga event is being co-sponsored by Brookline on the Move and the Brookline Departments of Public Health and Recreation.
The first International Day of Yoga, organized by the United Nations in 2015, attracted more than two billion people from 192 countries, including China, France, Afghanistan, Sri Lanka, United States, South Korea, and several locations in India. India’s Prime Minister led close to 35,000 people in a class in Delhi.
Yoga is promoted by health and fitness advocates for its ability to reduce stress and boost well-being. Scientific research also is being conducted to examine the physical benefits of this form of exercise.
For further information, please contact Lynne Karsten at 617–730–2336 or at lkarsten@brooklinema.gov.
A historic building in Coolidge Corner will have a new tenant later this year: Allium Market will open within the S.S. Pierce Building on the corner of Harvard and Beacon Streets, bringing cafe fare, cheese, and specialty foods to the neighborhood.
The cafe is the work of Talia Glass, who is modeling the concept with Michigan’s famous Zingerman’s Delicatessen in mind. There will be three components to Allium: the market section, a cheese shop, and the cafe, which will serve George Howell Coffee.
Customers will order at a counter from a menu that includes light dishes with bread sourced from Clear Flour near Packard’s Corner. Expect to see items like goat cheese toast, bread topped with mixed chickpea salad, and even scallion cream cheese and salmon toast, along with salads, spreads and dips, and made-to-order cheese boards that tap into the cheese section of Allium. Additionally, Tania Peterson will serve as Allium’s in-house pastry chef, bringing to the market and cafe years of experience at restaurants and catering companies around Boston.
“The emphasis is really just creating awesome food each day,” Glass said. “In an ideal world we’d like to be running out of things at the end of the day.”
The market component will reflect the tastes of Glass and her team.
“We’re gonna carry a pretty broad selection of imported and domestic dry goods, pantry staples, and foods that are sourced by our team,” Glass told Eater. Those items will include olive oils, vinegars, pickled vegetables, sauces, and more.
“It’s the stuff that myself and our team love, have tried, and gotten to know,” she said, and there will be an emphasis on sampling. “Every single thing in the store, the second you walk in the doors, you have the ability to try everything. Our overall focus in kind of all elements is to just create a really great experience for our customers.”
A historic building in Coolidge Corner will have a new tenant later this year: Allium Market will open within the S.S. Pierce Building on the corner of Harvard and Beacon Streets, bringing cafe fare, cheese, and specialty foods to the neighborhood.
The cafe is the work of Talia Glass, who’s modeling the concept with Michigan’s famous Zingerman’s Delicatessen in mind. There will be three components to Allium: the market section, a cheese shop, and the cafe, which will serve George Howell Coffee.
Customers will order at a counter from a menu that includes light dishes with bread sourced from Clear Flour near Packard’s Corner. Expect to see items like goat cheese toast, bread topped with mixed chickpea salad, and even scallion cream cheese and salmon toast, along with salads, spreads and dips, and made-to-order cheese boards that tap into the cheese section of Allium. Additionally, Tania Peterson will serve as Allium’s in-house pastry chef, bringing to the market and cafe years of experience at restaurants and catering companies around Boston.
“The emphasis is really just creating awesome food each day,” Glass said. “In an ideal world we’d like to be running out of things at the end of the day.”
The market component will reflect the tastes of Glass and her team.
“We’re gonna carry a pretty broad selection of imported and domestic dry goods, pantry staples, and foods that are sourced by our team,” Glass told Eater. Those items will include olive oils, vinegars, pickled vegetables, sauces, and more.
“It’s the stuff that myself and our team love, have tried, and gotten to know,” she said, and there will be an emphasis on sampling. “Every single thing in the store, the second you walk in the doors, you have the ability to try everything. Our overall focus in kind of all elements is to just create a really great experience for our customers.”
“Attention on deck!”
A police announcement usually heard when a commanding officer enters a room full of officers. Today, however, the commanding officer was not your typical seasoned veteran. It was 5th grade Pierce School student Graham Horowitz who was the Brookline Police Department’s “Chief for a Day”.
“Chief” Graham Horowitz was the winner of an essay contest where fifth graders from the eight Brookline elementary schools competed to win the right to be Chief of Police for a day.
“Chief” Horowitz was sworn in, had a police escort to the police station, stood roll-call and made a visit to various divisions in the police station.
“Chief” Horowitz learned the process in lifting finger prints, firearm safety, and hosted a Command Staff meeting. He assisted in bike enforcement, and even made an “arrest”.
We hope “Chief” Horowitz had fun and learned a little about what the officers do at BPD.
Four Brookline women representing Women and Girls Thriving in Brookline led a 90-minute, interactive presentation at the 2017 Collective Impact Forum, a national and international conference attracting more than 500 attendees to Boston May 23-25.
Misti Jaynes and Judith Stroum, two Thriving women who have taken significant leadership roles within the initiative, led the presentation, along with Brookline Community Mental Health Center and Brookline Housing Authority social worker Megan Smith, and local business woman and community leader Chobee Hoy.
Eighty conference participants attended the presentation about Thriving’s learning and strategies for community engagement, co-creation of products and services, and development of leadership pathways for women and girls with limited income. Seven other women from Women and Girls Thriving also attended the Convening: Anne Reed, Brookline Public Library; Susan Howards, local attorney; Roisin O’Regan, Thriving Working Group Leader; Ginnelle Vasquez, Brookline Commission for Women; Mary Kate Robbins, Food Justice Intern; Andrea Johnson, BCMHC, and Thriving Co-Founder; and Ann Brackett, Thriving co-founder.
A Brookline amateur soccer team has found a new way to raise money – sponsorship from a pornographic website.
Washington Square FC – whose roster includes men ages 22 to 29 – signed on with RedTube, a pornographic website, in August 2016. Since then, the team has sold merchandise with RedTube’s name on it, a team captain said.
“We wanted to bring something cool to amateur soccer that would bring some attention to what we e doing,” said Jon, the captain who asked that his last name not be used. “We asked what would be a big name to bring some attention to our team, our league, because amateur soccer does not get a lot of attention, especially over here in this country.”
Although the squad signed on with RedTube last summer, the relationship was publicized internationally this week.
Until signing up a sponsor, players had been paying out of pocket for field time, equipment and other costs, Jon said.
They were tossing around sponorship ideas, and players joked about signing on with a porn company. A player wrote up a letter and posted it to the team’s Twitter page, he said.
RedTube responded immediately.
“We figured why not? We are amateurs, we are not paid professionals, and we will get some revenue,” Jon said. “Now my guys do not have to pay money, which is what my goal was.”
Jon said the players did consider possible negative reaction from the community.
“We were worried about what our sponsor represented, but it is not about that,” Jon said. “Sure there are going to be people frowning upon what we do and I respect that, but some people use gambling websites [as sponsors] and some frown upon that.”
Jon added that the jerseys themselves do not include any graphic material, only the company name.
“It is not something we believe in or that we are trying to force on people,” Jon said. “It is a name on a shirt and that is a revenue stream. That was more important to us.”
Jon said the team has experienced an international response since the sponsorship.
“I have people that I am shipping jerseys to in Malaysia, Australia, all over Europe,” Jon said. “What we are doing is shining a light on something that people do not pay attention to and that is amateur soccer.”
A man was talked off the ledge of a roof on Babcock Street thanks to the quick actions of one Brookline police officer with the help of Boston first responders, according to Brookline Police.
Late on June 7 a call came into the Brookline Police that a man was on the roof of the Arbour-HRI psychiatric hospital on Babcock Street. Several first responders responded, including Boston, Boston University, Fallon Ambulance as a small crowd gathered beneath.
“The patient may have initially tried to elope, but Police Officer Tim Stephenson, a Crisis Interention Team trained officer, was responsive enough to reason with the patient to avert any mishap,” said Deputy Superintendent Michael Gropman.
No one was injured and the man who turned out to be a patient was reunited with staff and properly secured.
At noon on Wednesday, Asa Sevelius hit send on the e-mail that would change everything.
“Dear Heath Community, I am writing to all of you to share some powerful news about me…”
As principal of the Heath School in Chestnut Hill, he had made sure to keep his life from affecting his work. Even in a community as loving and progressive as this little school, which runs from pre-K through eighth grade, it is important to maintain boundaries.
But now people could see he was changing. It was only going to become more obvious. And he had pretended for way too long. It was time.
“I am transgender.”
For most of his 45 years, Sevelius, until now known to all as AC, has felt like a visitor in his own body. Ever since he could remember, before he even had words to describe it, being a girl felt wrong. He was born in Georgia, into a military family that moved around a lot. Sevelius’ South — religious, conservative — never felt safe. But while others were deeply uncomfortable with his refusal to go along with the conventions of the gender he had been assigned at birth, his parents accepted his resistance. “Is she all right?” people asked them. “What are you going to do about that?”
What they did was let Sevelius be. The two years his father was stationed in South Korea were the happiest of his childhood. There, he called himself Andy, living as a boy almost immediately after he arrived. He was fully himself, finding acceptance on a military base where everybody was from somewhere else.
Back in Georgia, the short hair, the boy’s clothes, the sneakers he insisted on wearing to church on Sunday were abnormal and confusing to people. He tried to fit in, wore his hair longer and styled, attempted makeup. It was all a performance. He remembers looking at his class pictures from sixth through ninth grade, showing his increasingly strenuous attempts to conform, and feeling more and more estranged from himself.
“It was like wearing clothes that don’t fit all the time, and they don’t fit in 10 different ways,” he said, speaking in his office earlier this week. “Without language, without models, without any resources at all, you don’t know how to make sense of it. The one thing that felt right was so damnable by society.”
He retreated, hiding behind his smarts, and his humor, hoping not to be noticed, not wanting to register in people’s minds as someone who was not real. College brought a measure of liberation. He came out as a lesbian, and became active on gay rights.
“It seemed to be an OK fit for a while,” he said. But he still did not feel whole.
He fell in love in San Francisco, with a Massachusetts woman. Glorious, seismic changes came in 2003 when same-sex marriage was legalized in this state. They moved back, got married, started a family (their children are now 5 and 10). It was wonderful. And yet.
“We were making our own family, making a home with two fish and a cat and a lawn I got to mow,” he said. “But I had these ceaseless waves of dysphoria” — jarring conflict with his physical appearance — “and I would just shunt them aside. It was this endless feeling of ‘something else.’ What is that other thing that won’t leave me alone?”
The answer came a couple of years ago. The nation, or parts of it, had started talking seriously about transgender rights. Transgender celebrities like Laverne Cox and Caitlyn Jenner were telling their own stories, and Sevelius felt a shock of recognition.
“That’s it,” he remembers thinking. “I have to be out.”
With support from his wife, his family, and his friends, he began to transition. Nobody else knew at first, unless he chose to tell them. But the changes to his appearance were becoming more obvious. He had to come out professionally, too, to say something publicly.
“During my life, the decision to transition has always felt so personal; it remains personal. That said, I recognize that I play a very public role in our community.”
“People ask me, why do you have to do this?” he said. “The funny answer is, ‘Well, one of these days I’m probably going to have a beard and people might wonder why.’ But I also deserve it. I deserve to be able to show up to my life as the person I am. And so much of my life is lived right here in this school.”
He knows how lucky he is. He works in one of the most tolerant places in the country, and has the full support of his district. The colleagues and parents with whom he has shared the news before now have been open and loving.
“I’m very privileged in my ability to do this,” he said.
On Tuesday afternoon, Sevelius called his staff together, and they folded themselves into little chairs in a first-grade classroom. Shaking, he delivered the news. Some of his teachers were relieved: There had been a rumor that he was leaving the school. They applauded and hugged him and pledged their support.
He has not slept well lately, worrying about how the wider community will react. The kids, he is sure, will be remarkably accepting, as they seem always to be. In the e-mail, Sevelius has included guidelines for parents when they talk with their children about his transition, and suggested readings. He is ready to answer as many questions from parents as he can. Beyond this circle of safety, he is bracing for ugliness.
“I fully recognize my ZIP code here does not protect me,” he said.
With gay marriage settled law, transgender rights have become the wedge issue of our day. And much of the debate has centered on kids and schools. Sevelius is now right in the center of all of it. It is not a comfortable spot to be in. But it is where he belongs.
“I work very hard to make this a community that is not going to bend on issues of inclusion and full acceptance, where any kid should be able to walk through those doors and have any opportunity,” he said. “I was that kid who had no idea who I was, and nobody to show me the way. I don’t pretend to believe I am some kind of beacon, but if one kid thinks, ‘That’s cool, that’s just like me,’ that would be pretty awesome.”
It is exhilarating, and terrifying, too. Sending that e-mail revealed a secret he once thought he would take to his grave.
“Suddenly, the thing you thought you’d never tell anyone in your whole life is public knowledge,” he said. “Something I’ve been trying to control so carefully and meticulously and thoughtfully is out of my control.”
He is as ready as anybody can be. He cannot hide anymore.
And he looks forward to that time, which will surely come, when no one remembers Asa Cain Sevelius was ever anybody but himself.
A third Boston-area location of a popular breakfast restaurant will not open in Brookline as planned: Owners of The Friendly Toast have decided not to pursue a new restaurant in Coolidge Corner, according to Boston Restaurant Talk, instead focusing on expansion in two other locations.
The Friendly Toast announced earlier this year that it would open within the former Yasu space 1366 Beacon Street with seating for 142 people, as previously reported, but will no longer pursue this expansion. Owner Eric Goodwin and business partner Scott Pulver (who purchased The Friendly Toast in 2013) will instead continue to work towards opening two additional restaurants in the Burlington Mall and in Bedford, NH. The Friendly Toast, which first opened in Portsmouth, NH, is known for its filling all-day breakfast dishes, burgers, sandwiches, soups, and even burritos.
Happy National Running Day from the Brookline Police Department.
The BPD has many avid runners, five of whom are pictured below having just finished the Boston Run to Remember 1/2 marathon.
Members of the class of 2017 marked the end of their time as Brookline High students in a lively ceremony complete with braces jokes, musical performances and complimentary Red Sox tickets.
On June 4, parents, friends, family members and school faculty gathered on Cypress Field to celebrate with the graduates, totalling around 444.
Brookline High faculty took turns at the mic, urging the soon-to-be-graduates to continue to work hard.
Headmaster Anthony Meyer left the graduates with a few lessons, among them to “always tell your parents, and us, when you do cool stuff,” and that “rejection is often temporary, stay the course.”
Senior Dean Brian Poon left the class of 2017 with a charge to aim high.
“If you dream big, you can work for Brookline High School,” Poon joked.
Though the comedic relief was plentiful, speakers like graduating senior Kaylah Pritchett and commencement speaker Samuel Kennedy, president of the Boston Red Sox, touched on the importance of diversity and inclusion.
“We must not disregard how privileged we are to have such a support system, the ability to be apart of an institution and community that is bold enough to tackle the concerns of human rights, to believe in the principles of equality for all and the understanding that inclusion makes us more resilient,” Pritchett said. “All aspects that I have never received or even experienced before attending Brookline High School.”
At the close of her speech, Pritchett called for her fellow graduates to not only appreciate the culture at Brookline High School, but to carry it forward.
“Respect and embrace the differences of others, others’ beliefs, sexuality, religions, cultures, races and even dreams,” Pritchett said. “Remember that inclusion just makes us stronger, and to never lose sight of that.”
Stepping to the microphone at what he called the “seventh inning in the ceremony,” Kennedy, a BHS alum, began by recognizing several graduating students for their accomplishments in athletics and reflecting on his own experiences at BHS and what he learned.
He recalled how he had teachers and coaches who taught him the importance of everything from dedication to humility – his ice hockey coach once told him he skated like a turtle.
Kennedy recalled another time when he and his good friend, Theo Epstein, had to run the bases at baseball practice as the slowest base runners on the team.
“As we passed each other, right about second base, Theo liked to try and punch me right below the belt,” Kennedy said. “Ahh the high school memories.”
Building off of Pritchett’s earlier message Kennedy spoke not only about the importance of diversity in itself, but the importance of speaking out against intolerance.
“Those of us in leadership positions in sports, have not only the responsibility but the opportunity to show the world that intolerance and bigotry have no place in society and certainly not at Fenway Park,”
The highlight of the ceremony may have come when Kennedy announced that upon reflecting on what he would have liked to recieve when he graduated from high school, he decided to give all the 2017 graduates tickets to the upcoming Red Sox game against the Detroit Tigers.
Upon hearing the news, one BHS grad stripped off his graduation robe to reveal a Red Sox jersey beneath.
In addition to leaving the graduating class with Sox tickets, Kennedy urged the grads to “ferociously and aggressively” pursue their passions.
“You’ve been given perhaps the greatest launching pad a 17 or 18 year old could ever ask for,” Kennedy said. “Four years at Brookline High School.”
Come join the Brookline MA Police Department (and fellow sponsors Brookline Recreation, Brookline’s Office for Diversity, Inclusion & Community Relations and City on a Hill Church) Friday evening, June 9th at Driscoll Playground & Field from 4-8:00 p.m. for Food Truck Friday!
Food trucks, family-friendly music & entertainment and fun activities.
Food for purchase, entertainment is free!
