Budget Meeting Video

MRUSD Budget Informational Meeting took place on February 26th. Click on the link below to see the video recording. 

VIDEO

Construction Photos: Week of 2/24

This past week, construction began at BFA in preparation for the connector building! 

Old exits are being covered up, and new ones are being made. Electrical wiring is being moved to alternate doors for the magnetic locks. 

A large ramp accessing the gym hallway exit is almost complete.

Site Superintendent Mike and

Project Manager Gary are on the job!

Reminder - Change of Schedule: March 4

Mid-Winter Break is 
February 24th - March 3rd.
Enjoy!!

On Wednesday, March 4th 

BFA will run the full 7-period schedule starting at 7:30am. 

Transcript Update for Underclassmen

Mr. Kimball held meetings with the 9th-11th grades on Thursday and Friday of this week and reviewed the transcript packet of information as well as providing an update on upcoming construction and parking news.

Click on the link to read the transcript letter:
 https://5il.co/d697

School Board Meeting of 02/19/20

This past Wednesday, February 19th, BFA hosted the Maple Run Unified School District Board of Directors meeting in our library.  I would like to thank the BFA Orchestra, the Robotic's Team and Liam Rocheleau for presenting their work to the School Board.  Both of these presentations are great examples of our students in action.

BFA Orchestra

BFA Robotics Team

Robot Video

Winter Activities During Break

BFA HOME GAMES

Wednesday, February 26

GIRLS HOCKEY HOST RUTLAND - 5:30 PM

BOYS HOCKEY HOST SPAULDING - 7:30 PM

Thursday, February 27th 

JV & VARSITY GIRLS B-BALL HOST ESSEX- 6 PM

Saturday, February 29

JV & VARSITY GIRLS B-BALL HOST NCU -1:00 PM

Collins Perley Sports and Fitness Center

Free to BFA students Monday - Friday over break from 3:00-4:00 pm

Sledding, Skiing and Riding at Hardack

Conditions are great at Hardack for daily skiing and riding.  Updates are made on the Hardack Facebook page.

Smugglers Notch half-price tickets, rentals and lessons for Vermonters all week long.  

https://www.smuggs.com/pages/winter/promotions/vermont-vacation.php?NCK=spbb&pub=spbb&utm_source=SilverpopMailing&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=2020_02_18_VT_WEEK_ORIG%20(1)&utm_content=&spMailingID=41821099&spUserID=NzY5MDc2OTY3MjExS0&spJobID=1701616772&spReportId=MTcwMTYxNjc3MgS2  

Jay Peak - SKI/RIDE FREE with High Honors any day of the week.  Semester 1 HIGH HONORS have been updated.  See Jay Peak customer service for your free lift tickets.  

Jay Peak - $30 BFA student tickets through the Founders Program.  Maple Run students may purchase $30 lift tickets with their student ID any day of the week.  No block out dates.

Rotary Ski Bus, Saturdays - Smugglers Notch 

Students must register online by Thursdays at noon before each Saturday: http://www.stalbansrotaryclub.com. Individual Saturdays are $25, a season pass is $200 paid in advance online. Snowboard and ski lessons and rentals are free!  

Youth Activities Award presented to BFA

Veterans of Foreign Wars of the United States Auxiliary recognizes our Youth Group.

Interact students volunteer at Winter Carnival

On February 16, 2020, BFA Interact students volunteered at the Hard'ack Winter Carnival for the 3rd year in a row.  12 BFA students joined up with St. Albans Recreation on a windy Sunday to serve hot chocolate, referee the sledding hill and monitor the obstacle course, putting on an amazing day for the community. 

Lindsay Bernard, Kayleigh Branon, Lydia Hodgeman and Brooke Barnett

Poetry Out Loud

Last night, BFA held their Poetry Out Loud competition with 15 students from across all of our grade levels.  Each student recited two poems and were scored for their accuracy, their physical presence, voice and articulation, dramatic appropriateness, evidence of understanding, and overall performance.  Congratulations to all the students who performed last night and I was honored to have a small part of the performance.

Adsel Sparrow won our competition by reciting Margaretta Engle's Turtle Came to See Me and Jimmy Santlago Baca's I Am Offering the Poem.  She will be moving on to represent BFA at Vermont's State competition.

BFA website, embedded video link:  https://www.maplerun.org/o/bfa/page/bfa-videos

Transcript update for Juniors, Sophomores, and Freshmen

Next week, the underclassman will be receiving their first draft of the new layout of the BFA transcripts that we will be using for the foreseeable future.  Our intent on handing this document out is to get feedback both from students and parents as we finalize the layout and calculation methods.  Please be advised that there still are a few layout issues that we know we will need to revise and we will include a list of improvements with the transcripts.  

Some of the differences:

• Both a letter grade and a proficiency score for each class.  The proficiency score is at least an average score of the content standards assessed in the course, or the teacher can raise the score if the teacher has evidence of higher performance that better represents the student’s achievement.
• There will be a flexible pathway section to show student learning that has occurred outside a BFA course, such as college courses, community-based learning, and online classes, to name a few.
• All five of the transferable skills will have an average score for that year’s student achievement as well as a cumulative average while at BFA.  
• Another new section will be honors and recognition, where academic awards will be listed.

For this version of the transcript, our conversion scale is:

Letter Grade	Proficiency Score Range
A+	Greater than or equal to 3.90
A	3.70 to 3.8999
A-	3.40 to 3.6999
B+	3.10 to 3.3999
B	2.90 to 3.0999
B -	2.90 to 3.0999
C+	2.70 to 2.8999
C	2.50 to 2.6999
CD	Less than 2.50

After reviewing several conversion scales from several colleges and high schools, we have chosen this scale as it is the closest to what we had previously at BFA.  Some of the characteristics of this scale that we liked were the B has a middle score of 3.0 and it had an A+ which we had heard was important to our educational community.

Currently, on the top of the transcript, is a proficiency average which is an average of the content standard scores for either a school year or the entire time at BFA.  

Next Wednesday, February 19^th we will be having class meetings to explain the document and hand out the transcript.  If you do not receive a copy and would like one, please e-mail your child’s counselor.

Next week, we will be posting a link to the blog for staff, student, and parent feedback to improve and finalize this document, this spring.

Here is the link to the model transcript: 

https://5il.co/d1f4

Bill Kimball

Interim Principal

Proficiency-Based Diploma News

Great News from Great Schools Partnerships

"85 New England Institutions of Higher Education State that Proficiency-Based Diplomas Do Not Disadvantage Applicants"

Click on the link below to see the collection of 85 letters from universities across New England including Harvard, Dartmouth, and MIT.

https://www.greatschoolspartnership.org/proficiency-based-learning/college-admissions/

Construction Update

This past Wednesday, the Maple Run Board of Directors awarded the BFA Connector project to Neagley and Case Construction Company from South Burlington.  Construction will begin after February break by installing several temporary fire doors in the North building.  Also in early March, the construction fence will be installed between the two buildings and faculty will be parking in St. Mary's parking lot for the rest of the school year.  We would like to thank them for their willingness to help us out while we improve our facility. We expect construction will begin in early April on the connector and must be finished by the start of next school year.

Bill Kimball

Budget Meeting- Save the Date

MRUSD Budget Informational Meeting - BFA Library

Feb 26 from 6:00 PM to 8:00 PM.

2020 District Musical Festival

54 music students recently attended the Northwest District Music Festival hosted by Mt. Mansfield Union High School on January 30-31 with their Instructors, Armand Messier (vocal music) and Eric Bushey (instrumental music).  BFA students participated in the District Chorus, Band, and Wind ensemble.

Nathaniel Cobb performed and received a $500 district scholarship on Saxophone.
Dr. Brian Messier, BFA alumnus and Director of Bands at Dartmouth College guest conducted the District Wind Ensemble. 

Year after year, BFA continues to send numerous students who are well prepared for this district music festival that creates music opportunities and memories for a lifetime.  

SAT Test Date Info

From the BFA Guidance Office

We are offering the SAT test dates in March, May and June of this year.  The deadline to sign up for the March testing is 2/14/20. 


Below are next years confirmed SAT test dates:

Scheduled Test Date	Status	Number of Seats
August 29, 2020	OPEN	100
October 03, 2020	OPEN	100
November 07, 2020	OPEN	100
December 05, 2020	OPEN	100
March 13, 2021	OPEN	100
May 08, 2021	OPEN	100
June 05, 2021	OPEN	100

Note: We are offering August for the first time this year 

The guidance office has directions on how to sign up!

Senior Scholarship Event

Excitement filled the air in the BFA library as more than 120 seniors sorted through hundreds of local, regional and statewide scholarships.  Our very own counselor from VSAC, Ellen Wright, joined the mix to provided real-time answers to application questions.  SATEC's Heather Lamson organized a morning feast to power these future graduates as they embark upon the next stage of their future plans, paying for college and training. 

Upcoming deadlines that you should be aware of as we support this class include:

*VSAC Scholarship deadline, February 12th

* Local Scholarship deadline, April 1st to the Guidance Office                                               

* Additional scholarships will have individual deadlines and students are responsible for mailing these applications directly. 

Thank you for partnering with your school counselors around this important work.

Warm regards,

BFA School Counselors