American History Presentation

What does it mean to be an American?

What a team!

• Mike Campbell's Social Studies Students
• Theater Guru Susan Palmer
• Technical Wizard Doug Bell's Team
• Computer Scientist Steven Davis 

...joined in an outstanding collaborative effort to combine theater and media arts to explore the question of what it means, and has meant historically, to be an American.  

"We have had some incredible conversations and discoveries along the way, said Ms. Palmer."

For over a month, the students gathered, edited, painted, re-wrote, and rehearsed for this presentation, resulting in a moving theatrical performance that will not be forgotten. It was an authentic learning experience for those involved.

The BFA community came in support of the students on Wednesday morning in the PAC.

Video Link HERE

Snowboarding Winter Fun

Here are some photos of our students enjoying the snowboarding club!

From left to right, John Delacy, Sylas Trask, Jack Weishaar & Caleb Smith.

How to view a Course Syllabus

All About The Syllabus

Each course at BFA has a syllabus that provides students and parents important information about the course. This helps to orient the student to expectations and get a snapshot of the course. Each syllabus includes the following:

• Course Description
• Prerequisites
• Assessed Standards
• Assessed Transferable Skills
• Required Materials
• Scoring Procedure
• Assessment Policy
• Course Outline

The following are instructions for viewing course syllabus:

Navigate to the MRUSD website. Click on Campus in right-hand corner and choose BFA. Then see directions below.

Or you can click HERE to go directly.

How to View Report Cards

Semester 1 report cards are now available to view on Unified Classroom. 

Click the link below for instructions on how to access your students' report card. 

HOW TO VIEW REPORTS

Second Semester

We've completed the first week of Semester 2! 

Please check in with your students to ensure they are off to a great start. Students may change or withdraw from a course within the first six (6) days of the semester with the approval of his/her school counselor and parent/guardian.  

If their schedules need to be adjusted, do not hesitate to contact our Guidance Department. 

Principal Search Update

Thank you to everyone who was able to attend Wednesday's Principal forum to determine the skills and attributes we need in our next Principal.  For those of you who were not able to attend, here is the hiring process:

January 22nd, 3:30 to 5:30 - First meeting of the committee to determine the key indicators for the selection process, development of interview questions, and selection of candidates.

January 28th and 29th - 1 to 6 pm - Conduct first-round of interviews and select two finalists.

February 3rd - 5th - Finalist, half-day visits to BFA.

The principal hiring committee will have 15 members including myself.  Seven of those positions being reserved for BFA staff, five slots for teachers, one for a staff member and one member of the administrative team. Also, there will be two parents/community members, two students, two central office administrators, and a NWTC representative.  

Once again, thank you to all who help us in our process.

Winter Ball Rescheduled for February 8th

The WINTER BALL has been rescheduled for February 8th.

Semi-Formal - BFA Gymnasium
Admission: $5 per person

Report Cards

Assessment week was a success bringing semester one to a close. A sigh of relief was heard when the assessment week schedule was not interrupted by a snow day! 

Over the next several day's teachers will be working hard to score assessments and enter them into Unified Classroom. Scores will go through two rounds of verification before the final report is run. Final scores are scheduled to be published to parents on Friday, January 24th, at 4:00 pm.

If the timeline changes, parents and students will be notified through the school digital contact system.

Business Department News

Contest Winners

BFA St. Albans Business Department participated in the Lights, Camera, Save video contest through their Personal Finance course. Peoples Trust Company awarded all students for their participation, and the winning class video won $500.

Congratulations to the winning video produced by Greg Torbert, Keira Wells, and Daniel Hill.

National Business Honor Society

The BFA St. Albans Business Department held its annual National Business Honor Society Induction Ceremonies this past Sunday. 

Congratulations to our newest members of the National Business Honor Society: Maddy Giroux, Ben Archambault, and Jacob Benware. And a big welcome back to Meghan Connor.

The National Business Honor Society is an organization that recognizes juniors and seniors who truly excel academically in all their classes and are interested in pursuing a career in the business world. Students are also selected for recognition based on their overall academic, character, and leadership skills.

Chamber Singers performed for the St. Albans Area Chamber of Commerce

"Chamber Mixer"

BFA Chamber Singers were invited to perform at the People’s Trust Company for the St. Albans Area Chamber of Commerce first “Chamber Mixer" of the year. This was a wonderful experience for our students to meet and sing for local business owners and community leaders. 

Repertoire performed included the 16th century madrigal, “Awake Sweet Love,” followed by “Follow the Drinking Gourd,” (an African-American folk song) and “Seasons of Love,” from the Musical, Rent. Chamber Singers rendition of “Follow the Drinking Gourd,” helped highlight the historical context of the Underground Railroad which had prominent routes and locations throughout St. Albans City. 

With the Martin Luther King holiday approaching, it was especially important to sing about the Underground Railroad highlighting efforts by enslaved African-Americans to reach free states in the North and Canada. Thus, some of the very first steps leading in the long road of our nation’s civil right’s movement.

Invitation to Community Forum Re: Principal Search

Wednesday, January 15th, 6-8pm

BFA Library

As many of you are aware, I have been asked to facilitate the hiring process for BFA’s next Principal.  The process will include staff and community forums and the selection of a hiring committee.  At each of the community forums, the group will determine the skills and characteristics they would like to see in our next principal.  This information will help to inform the hiring committee as they build their selection process.

Therefore, I would like to invite all of you to attend the community forum to contribute to our hiring process on Wednesday, January 15^th in the BFA library at 6pm.

Bill

Assessment Week Schedule

Assessment Schedule - 1st Semester

4 Block Brunch

The first day of Semester 2 is January 21st

	Tuesday 1/14/2020	Wednesday 1/15/2020	Thursday 1/16/2020	Friday 1/17/2020
7:00 – 7:55	Breakfast in Cafeteria	Breakfast in Cafeteria	Breakfast in Cafeteria	Breakfast in Cafeteria
8:00 – 9:45	Assessment Period 2	Assessment Period 3	Assessment Period 5	Assessment  Period 7
9:55 – 11:35	Enrichment/Brunch	Enrichment/Brunch	Enrichment/Brunch	10:00 – 11:45 *Assessment Make-ups
9:55 – 10:20	Lunch 1	Lunch 1	Lunch 1
10:20 – 10:45	Lunch 2	Lunch 2	Lunch 2
10:45 – 11:10	Lunch 3	Lunch 3	Lunch 3
11:10 - 11:35	Lunch 4	Lunch 4	Lunch 4
11:40 – 1:25	Assessment Period 1	Assessment Period 4	Assessment Period 6	Teacher Prep
1:30 – 2:45	Teacher Prep	Teacher Prep	Teacher Prep	Teacher Prep

                                                           

Parent Meeting held on 1/6/20 Re: Proficiency Based Learning, Scoring & Reporting

We would like to thank all of the parents and community members who attended our parent forum this past Monday night.  We had approximately 45 people in attendance who provided feedback on the goals for our reporting and scoring system through both real-time surveying and small discussion groups.

We will be using the feedback to adjust our goals and to look at what BFA must provide to create a clear and equitable, scoring and reporting system that all can understand.  We will have future parent forums to collaborate on the construction of the system.

If you were not able to attend Monday night's forum, please click on the link below to view the presentation, watch the video, and see the feedback we received.  We expect it will be another 4 to 6 weeks until we have another forum, so please stay tuned to this blog as we will post announcements about upcoming dates.

BFA Website page: click here

Vimeo direct video link: click here

Parent Group exercise - responses: click here

Also, note that this information can be found on our BFA campus website. Go to the MRUSD website, within Campus, choose BFA. Go to Menu. Click on Student/Parent, which gives a list of items. Click on Proficiency-Based Learning.

Invitation - Parent Meeting Monday, January 6, 2020

Hello parents:

We would like to invite parents, especially those of freshman, sophomores, and juniors to take part in a working session on our proficiency-based scoring and reporting. This session will be held this Monday, January 6th at 6 pm in the BFA Library. 

During this presentation, we will update you on what we have heard from the feedback we have received, the work we have done to this point and provide you an opportunity to give us input on the major objectives for grading/scoring and methods of reporting.

Please bring a smartphone or plan on using one of the school's Chromebooks, as we will be using live, online polling to receive feedback.  The night will be facilitated in whole group and small group discussions.  Please do not worry if you cannot attend, there will be additional opportunities for providing feedback throughout the winter and spring.

Bill

Holiday donations!

We wanted to share our communities outstanding efforts in making sure our BFA families felt the warmth of generosity this holiday season. A heartfelt thank you to all involved for donating food, paper bags, and time assembling and delivering. THANK YOU!