Getting Ready for the 2024-25 School Year

We’re looking forward to having your student(s) at Ben Franklin Academy this fall! We will continue to communicate with you throughout the summer, but please read below for important information and action items. If you need anything from the office, we’ll be open during the summer from 9 a.m. until noon on Wednesdays from May 29 – July 31 (closed on July 3). If you have questions, you can also email info@bfacademy.org.

Below are some key tasks to complete early in the summer:

Uniforms: It’s a good idea to get an early start on purchasing uniforms for the next school year. We have three uniform vendors—Educational Outfitters, French Toast and Tommy Hilfiger. Go to our uniforms webpage (select uniforms at the top of the page) to learn more and get direct links to all the vendors. Please remember to purchase a Formal Uniform, which is a navy shirt with the red BFA logo and tan pants, shorts, skirt or a skort. (As a reminder, the Formal Uniform is worn on the first day of school, the first Wednesday of every month and, generally, on field trips.)
Returning Families, Please Keep Carpool Tags: Please keep your carpool tags. We still plan to use the carpool app for afternoon pick-up, but the carpool tags are also an important part of the pick-up process.
Medical Appointments: Any medication forms or health plans need to be completed prior to the start of school, but forms should be dated after July 1. Be sure they are filled out by the doctor and signed by the parent. We also need vaccination forms for kindies and updated forms for incoming sixth graders to show they’ve received the T-dap vaccine. For more information, see our health webpage.
Key Dates: We’ve created this handy one page key date document that highlights key dates you should add to your calendar as we prepare for the upcoming school year.

Middle School Electives

Middle School parents and students should review the middle school Electives Catalog and mark the registration dates on the calendar. Registration for electives will be through MySchoolBucks beginning at 9 a.m. on the dates listed below, and is on a first come, first served basis. Note: New families should look at our payments webpage for instructions about how to set up your MySchoolBucks account, then add your middle school student(s) after July 4 .

The following dates are when the registration window will be available by grade level. If the elective your student would like is not listed in MySchoolBucks, that means it is full and you must choose another class. We recommend you login to MySchoolBucks from your desktop rather than using the app.

Electives registration will close on Sunday, July 21.

July 10 – Electives Open for Eighth Grade
July 11 – Electives Open for Seventh Grade
July 12 – Electives Open for Sixth Grade
July 21 – Electives Close

Additional details can be found in the Electives Catalog that will be sent out in June.

Necessary Steps for the 2024-25 School Year

STEP #1: DCSD Express Check-In, July 22 – 31

DCSD Express Check-In will be available beginning July 22. Logging into the EngagED Parent Portal and completing the online forms is an annual requirement for all BFA K-8 students. We’d like our families to have it completed by July 31. This Check-In application allows parents to update household information, sign off on district forms, update health conditions and pay student fees (see below). The DCSD Check-In process allows for maximum flexibility, as you can check in any time during the window, and is significantly streamlined for returning parents. New families – this will take you a bit longer, but next year some of the data will be pre-populated making it much easier. One parent from the primary household should complete DCSD Express Check-In for each K-8 student. Normally, this is also when you pay student fees; however, once again, we were able to incorporate general school supplies into our budget so there will be no K-8 student fees for supplies!

To complete this key step in the annual check-in process, you will need to be able to log in to the EngagED Parent Portal.
- The procedure to access the EngagEd Parent Portal changed in the fall of 2023. From the Single Sign-On screen, you will be prompted for an email. DO NOT enter your personal email address. Instead, enter your Infinite Campus Parent Portal username followed by @p.dcsdk12.org. Your password is the same for both Infinite Campus and EngagEd.
- If you do not know your username or if you need to reset your password, visit the DCSD Identity Management & Password Reset page.
Parents/Guardians who are BRAND NEW to the district (have never had a student attend a DCSD school until the 2024-25 school year) do not have Portal accounts yet.
- - Parents/Guardians who open enrolled their children, created a username and password when they completed Open Enrollment (OE). These Infinite Campus Parent Portal accounts will be activated and accessible after July 4.
  - Parents/Guardians who did not complete OE (for example, those whose spouses completed OE for their child) will receive email with instructions from DCSD’s IT Support Center (ITSC) to set up their Infinite Campus Parent Portal after July 4.
  - After your Infinite Campus account is set up, follow the instructions above to add “@p.dcsdk12.org” after your username so you can login to the EngagED Parent Portal and complete Express Check-In.
If you have an existing Portal account and have issues logging in after using the DCSD Identity Management & Password Reset page to confirm your username and/or reset your password, please call DCSDs IT Support Center for help at 303-387-0001 (Monday-Friday, 7 a.m. – 4 p.m.).

STEP #2: BFA Annual Family Check-In, Aug. 6 & 7

Parents and K-8 students should come to BFA to complete BFA Annual Family Check-In on their assigned date (see below).

Tuesday, August 6

Families with last name beginning A-L
Hours: 11 a.m. – 6 p.m. (School closed for lunch break from 2-3 p.m.)

Wednesday, August 7

Families with last name beginning M-Z
Hours: 7 a.m. – 2 p.m. (School closed for lunch break from 10:30 – 11:30 a.m.)

When you come to BFA to check-in, make sure to:

Be ready to SMILE! Student photos will be taken. Students should wear a BFA uniform shirt. Parents’ volunteer pictures will be taken when the parent comes into the building to volunteer and their Driver’s License has been scanned.
Current families DO NOT need to bring in their carpool tag this year–but please keep it to use during the upcoming school year as it’s a helpful part of the carpool process, along with the PikMyKid app. New families will receive a tag, and should allow extra time to learn about BFA’s drop-off/pick-up processes.
Bring student medications and completed required health forms from DCSD Express Check-In with parent and physician’s signature.
Bring copies of any legal documents or updates (custody, parenting plan, guardianship, etc.), if applicable.

Elementary School Teacher Assignments & Middle School Schedules

Elementary Teacher assignments can be found in the Infinite Campus (IC) Parent Portal after 9 a.m. on Friday, Aug. 2.

Middle school parents should log into their Infinite Campus (IC) Parent Portal to view their student’s middle school schedule after 9 a.m. on Aug. 2. Please print the schedule and ask your student to bring it on his/her first day.

Note: the Infinite Campus Parent Portal is different from the EngagED Portal where you completed Express Check-In. For the Infinite Campus Parent Portal, your credentials are your username (WITHOUT the ‘@p.dcsdk12.org’ ) and password.

Instructions for Pulling Up Teachers/Schedules in IC

Here’s how to view BFA teacher assignments and/or middle school schedules in IC:

Login to your Infinite Campus (IC) Parent Portal
From the left-hand menu bar, select: Schedule
- If that does not work for you, click Documents, then 0135 BA 24-25
Elementary students will see their homeroom teacher, and middle school students can print their schedule

If you have multiple BFA students, you will need to view their schedules separately.

New BFA Parent/Guardian Orientation

Brand new BFA families are welcome to join us for an orientation from 5:30 – 7 p.m. on Thursday, Aug. 8, at BFA.

Middle School Math Placement Testing for Brand New BFA Students

On Friday, Aug. 9, middle school students new to BFA will complete math placement testing for the 2024-25 school year. Details to follow.

Meet the Teacher/Family Picnic

Save the date! On the afternoon of Monday, Aug. 12, you’ll have the opportunity to meet your student(s) teacher(s) as well as other BFA families. Elementary and middle school families can come by BFA and meet their teacher between 3 – 5 p.m., then stay for the Community Events Committee’s informal Back-to-School picnic which will be held from 3:30 – 6:30 p.m. Bring your chairs and blankets, and join us for games, music, food trucks and fun with your fellow BFA community.

Details to follow!

Preschool In-Person Meet and Greets

Preschool also will offer Meet and Greets for each classroom. More information will follow in an email in the later part of July. We hope you’ll join us for the Back-to-School picnic on Aug. 12!

School Begins Aug. 14

The First Day of School for Grades 1-8 is from 8:15 a.m. – 3:30 p.m. on Wednesday, August 14. All students (except our preschoolers) should wear their Formal Uniform, which is a navy polo with the BFA logo and tan pants, shorts, skirt or a skort.

Note: Preschool Tuesday/Thursday students will begin on Aug. 15.

Kindergarten First Day of School and BooHoo/Yahoo

Kindergarten students also begin on Wednesday, Aug. 14, but for the first day of school ONLY, morning and full-day kindergarten begins at 8:30 a.m; afternoon kindergarten starts at the regular time (12:30 p.m.). Students should wear their Formal Uniform, which is a navy polo with the BFA logo and tan pants, shorts, skirt or a skort. School will start a bit later on the first morning for Kindies (8:30 a.m.) so parents can park and walk their students into school. Parents should plan on walking their students into school for a story and staying for our traditional BooHoo/YaHoo social event. (The BooHoo/Yahoo event also will be held around 12:45 p.m. for our afternoon kindie parents.) Additional details to follow.

Back to School Nights

Every year, parents are invited to a Back to School Night to help them become better acquainted with the school, staff and information specific to their child’s grade level. More information will be provided later in the summer.

Grades K-4: Back to School Night from 6 – 8 p.m. on Tuesday, Aug. 27.
Grades 5-8: Back to School Night from 6 – 8 p.m. on Wednesday, Aug. 28.