A message from Board President Haley Maglieri…
In partnership with Principal Simpson, the BFA Board of Directors is proud to work for the students, parents and patrons of BFA in promoting the mission and vision of the school. The following summarizes action taken during our March Board meeting.
BOD Updates:
Board Succession
Voting for the Board elections starts next week! Members of the parent voting group will receive access to an electronic ballot on Monday, April 1, and will have until 11:59 p.m. on Friday, April 12, to cast their vote. The BFA community will elect (or re-elect) one (1) director and the current BFA Board will appoint one (1) director to serve on the volunteer seven-director Board. Results of the election will be announced and the appointment will be made on Tuesday, April 16, at the regularly-scheduled board meeting.
Be on the lookout for your ballot next week! If you have any questions or would like additional information, please contact Adam Lucero at adaml@bfacademy.org or Keri Street at keri@bfacademy.org.
Student Survey
The SAC has prepared this year’s Student Survey which the Board reviewed. As always, the survey is modified by grade level, as appropriate. It will look very similar to last year’s survey. It is expected that students will receive the survey in April.
Spring Parent Survey Results
The results of the Spring Parent Survey will be reviewed at the April Board meeting. The data received from this survey is important to SAC, the Administration, our staff, and our Board. It was unfortunate, however, to hear that there were only 87 responses. By comparison, last year we had more than 300 responses. If you would like to share feedback regarding the Spring Survey, and/or why you chose not to participate, please email Haley Maglieri at haleym@bfacademy.org.
CMAS Testing
CMAS testing begins next week. As emphasized by Principal Simpson, your child’s participation in this process not only provides a benchmark for their academic growth, the results play a critical role in evaluating our school’s overall performance. Given our data-driven approach to education, we value your child(rens) participating in this important process. Last year, we had reduced participation across our grade levels. Let’s work hard to increase that number this year so that we are able to accurately and appropriately measure student achievement.
Charter Renewal
We are now in the process of reviewing the first draft of our charter contract. We are on target for finalizing our new five-year contract or before June 30, 2024.
Financial Oversight:
Treasurer Sarah Nisbet provided the financial focus during the meeting. February financials were reviewed and recommended for approval by our Finance Committee. We remain focused on our financial health, including appropriate spending and wise investments. A draft of the proposed 2024/25 budget was reviewed and will be finalized in the coming months.
As always, financial documents are made available on the Financial Transparency page of the BFA website.
Policy Governance:
The Board did not review any policies during the March meeting, but recommendations were made by Principal Simpson related to the Homework and Student Attendance Policies.
The current homework policy regarding student, parent and teacher guidelines is suggested to be expanded. For students, the focus will be on advocacy and communication with teachers pertaining to missed work. For parents, the suggestions involve encouraging students to self-advocate. For staff, suggestions pertained to expanding what feedback to students looks like, including rubrics, graded work google classroom comments.
Suggestions pertained to providing potential alternate assignments where a student misses classwork that cannot be duplicated upon the student’s return. Additionally, language was recommended regarding long term assignments and tests, including that due dates remain the same if assigned more than seven (7) days prior to the absence. It was also suggested that test dates remain the same if the test was announced more than seven (7) days prior to the absence.
Based on this information, the Homework and Student Attendance policies will be reviewed by the Board in April.
Board BOLTS:
The Board and Principal Simpson recognize that there are BFA students who go above and beyond and achieve excellence in academics, character, effort and/or service. We are proud of these students and the characteristics they exemplify. Our Board BOLTS for March are:
- Talia Seibel (2nd)
- Nora Klingel (3rd)
- Ayush Saboo (3rd)
- Ryla Royal (3rd)
- Keenan Majors (5th)
- Campbell Pettersen (5th)
- Tony Valencia (5th)
- Sophie Farho (5th)
- Matthew Rodriguez (7th)
If you would like to nominate a student to be recognized as one of our Board BOLTS in April, please use this nomination form.
March Board Meeting:
The next BFA Board of Director meeting will take place on Tuesday, April 16, in the Middle School Commons