Thank you so much to all of the families who have volunteered this school year! Volunteers are a HUGE part of what makes our school great. Your volunteer time supports our students, staff and allows us to host the events and activities that make BFA so special. We literally could not do it without you! This school year, BFA volunteers have logged almost 14,000 total hours in Help Counter. We can't thank you enough for making this another great year of volunteerism at BFA! 

Each month a volunteer will be randomly chosen through a drawing to win a fun, surprise gift. All you have to do to be eligible to win, is log at least ONE hour of volunteer service in the month prior to the drawing.

This month, Michelle Koh is the winner of the PTO drawing for her volunteer time in April. Michelle volunteered in the science lab, helping third graders with the cow eyeball dissection. She has won a $10 gift card to Gelato & Co. 

Congratulations, Michelle! Thank you for all your volunteer efforts, and especially for helping the kids stay focused during the excitement of a dissection!

School uniforms are an important aspect of BFA culture. They create a level playing field among students and reduce peer pressure and bullying. They also help students focus on their studies, not their clothes. Uniforms enhance school pride, unity and community spirit and decrease discipline issues. For more information about school uniforms, parents can refer to the Uniform Policy and the Uniform Standards for All Students.

We have three uniform vendor options so families can choose the best fit, comfort and price point. BFA parents will have the opportunity to purchase uniform items from three approved vendors—Educational Outfitters, French Toast and Tommy Hilfiger.

Links to the vendor sites can be found on the uniforms webpage. To get to the uniform page, please click here (and select uniforms at the top of the page) or visit the BFA website, then select parents, policies/uniforms/forms, and finally uniforms at the top of this page. 

We recommend that parents purchase uniforms early, as sometimes there is a delay in receiving items. Also, please be sure to purchase a Formal Uniform for your student as students are required to wear their Formal Uniform on the first day of school, the first Wednesday of each month, and on field trips. A Formal Uniform is a navy polo shirt with the BFA logo and tan pants, shorts, skirt or a skort.

Please note, Educational Outfitters is having a 15 percent off sale in May. See the uniform webpage for fliers from our other vendors detailing ways to find our about their promotions. In addition, the Parent Teacher Organization (PTO) normally hosts two used uniform sales throughout the school year. 

We want to thank everyone for their incredible thoughtfulness during Teacher and Staff Appreciation Week. With your help, the teachers and staff enjoyed a week full of treats, flowers, cards, gifts, and other surprises! The PTO provided Kona Koko and Cookies, Jimmy John’s, Girl Scout cookies, Starbucks, and Santiago Burritos; and the students showered the staff with notes and flowers. 

Teacher and Staff Appreciation Week would not have been successful without the time and effort of many! Thank you to all the volunteers who helped make this week possible. It is wonderful to see BFA come together to support the amazing teachers and staff at our school!

If your student has medication in the health room, please plan to pick it up between 9 and 11:30 a.m. during the last day of school. Only a parent/guardian or a designated adult can pick up medicine. Parents also can request that their student take home any remaining medicine, but parents must email Teri DeBellis in our Health Room by Friday, May 20, with the request. She will put the medicine in a sealed envelope and send it home with the student. She will not release any medication to a student unless she receives a written request from the parent. 

If applicable, you also will need to pick up any medication stored in BASE, as we will not transfer medications for summer camp. Any medication left at school after the school year ends will be disposed of per CDPHE rules and regulations governing schools.

Please email our Health Assistant, Teri DeBellis, with any questions.

Each year the Community Events Committee (CEC) hosts One Act of Kindness (OAK). This year, they hope to have a BIG, POSITIVE impact on the Collaborative Foster Care Program (CFCP) that serves foster parents and foster youth in Arapahoe, Douglas and Jefferson Counties. 

Thanks to those of you who have donated to CFCP so far! The final day to donate is TOMORROW, May 13. As of yesterday, we were only at 5 percent of our goal to donate 50 gift cards. Please consider donating today!

Donate Summer Fun Items!

• Sunscreen, hats or sunglasses
• Summer toys (i.e. sidewalk chalk, bubbles, pool toys, sports balls, goggles, water balloons, pool floaties, water guns, etc.)
• Swimsuits (ages 10 and up have the greatest need)

Donate Gift Cards!

• Visa
• Restaurants (i.e. Chipotle, Red Robin, Chilis, Kneaders, Panera, Olive Garden, etc.)
• Target, Kohls, Marshalls, TJ Maxx, Walmart
• Activities (i.e. Bowling, Movie Theater, Mini Golf, Main Event, Boondocks, etc.)

*Please consider donating in increments of $25.00 to support more kids and families

And remember, TONIGHT, May 12, the CEC is hosting Foster Parent Information Night from 6 - 7 p.m. in the Middle School Commons. Please stop by to learn more about becoming a foster parent OR how to support a foster family in our community.

The 2022 Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Math (STEAM) Expo is TOMORROW, May 13! This year we are returning to a booth-style Expo featuring STEAM activities from 20+ vendors and the BFA parent community.  

The STEM committee needs your help to make this BFA tradition a success. Please sign up here to help with the STEAM Expo, and support the students of BFA on their journey of STEAM discovery. 

If you have any questions, feel free to contact us at stem@bfacademy.org. Also, be sure to ask your student what they learned and about their favorite booth/activity. We can't wait to hear what they have to share!

The 2021-22 yearbooks will be distributed on Monday, May 23.  If you haven't ordered one yet, there will be some extras available for purchase in Ms. Svensen's classroom the week of distribution for $45, cash or check (made out to BFA PTO) only.

Thank you to the middle school yearbook staff for all their hard work on the 2021-22 yearbook! 

Field Day is going to be tons of fun again this year! More information will be forthcoming, but for now, be sure to mark your calendars:

• May 23 – Grades 2, 3, 4 and 5
• May 25 – Grades K and 1

To volunteer for elementary field day, please sign up here.

Middle School Field Day is Tuesday, May 24, at Redstone Park. The schedule is as follows

• Sixth Grade: 9 - 10:45 a.m. 
• Seventh Grade: 9:30 a.m. - Noon 
• Eighth Grade: 10:30 a.m. - 1:15 p.m. 

Middle School parents should register and complete the release using MySchoolBucks.  

Thank you to all the volunteers who helped make this year's Spring Social, the Mother-Son Nerf Event, a success! The PTO was happy to host about 260 mothers and sons for nerf battles, coordinated by Battle Zone. Everyone came out of their matches with huge smiles, pink cheeks, and ready to chow down at the pizza party. And, it was great to see all the families enjoying the weather while trying their hands at the board breaking and jousting competitions provided by Legacy Karate.

Attention all middle school (upcoming 6-8 grade) students interested in playing some soccer. We have two amazing opportunities for soccer enthusiasts this summer:

Kick Arounds will be Tuesday mornings all summer long from 9-10:15 a.m. We will strictly play a 75 minute game with breaks only if needed. Teams will be decided each week depending on attendance. Kick arounds are coed and an excellent way to have fun, get out of the house, and practice your soccer with friends. Please use the 2022 Kick Arounds link to sign up if you are interested. 

Soccer Camp will be July 25-28. Camp will focus on mastering key skills, and using individual ability in 1v1, 1v2, 2v2, 2v3 small group settings essential for the building blocks of the full field game. The camp will be held from 9 - 11:30 a.m. July 25-28 on the BFA turf. Several of our high school varsity soccer players will be helping with our camp, and hopefully even some of our previous BFA players. It's a fun way to get more exposure to the game and prepare for the following season. Please use the 2022 Soccer Camp link to sign up. 

Who: Incoming 2022 BFA fifth through eighth grade girls

What: Summer girls basketball camp

Where: BFA's Thunder Gym

When: 9 - 11:30 a.m. Tuesday, July 19 - Friday, July 22 

Girls of all abilities are encouraged to come while we work on furthering the development of dribbling, shooting, offensive, and defensive skills through drills, game situations, and fun activities! Camp registration will cost $125 with no prorated options. In order to keep camp costs down, we will not be using MySchoolBucks so registration can be paid with cash, check (made out to Megan Mares or Kevin Knudsen), or Venmo (@Megan-Mares-2). Sign up today!

Contact Coach Mares or Coach Knudsen with any questions.

Attention Readers! All library books need to be returned by Wednesday, May 18. Charges for lost and damaged books will be in your MySchoolBucks account if the books are not returned or there is damage that cannot be repaired.

Please do not send in a replacement book for one that has been damaged or lost. We order our books through the Douglas County School District (DCSD) vendor so they are library bound.

Please join the members of the Parent Teacher Organization (PTO) for their end-of-year meeting! The meeting will be held from 4-6 p.m. THIS Sunday, May 15, at Plum Valley Park in Highlands Ranch. The PTO will be providing dinner. Please RSVP and indicate on your sign-up if you have gluten-free and/or vegetarian dietary needs. We will do our best to accommodate. Hope to see you there!

Thank you to all the families who have volunteered this year. We sincerely appreciate all that you do for BFA! To show our thanks, the PTO is hosting a volunteer appreciation event--an evening at Pirates Cove from 6-8 p.m. on Saturday, June 11. All BFA families who have met and recorded their family's volunteer quota (30 hours per family or 15 per single-parent household) will be rewarded with FREE admission for their immediate family to Pirate's Cove. The PTO has rented out the park for the evening of our event, so it will be a private BFA-only event. We hope to see all of our dedicated volunteers there!

Please log your volunteer hours as soon as possible. The deadline for logging hours is May 31. We love to recognize our volunteers so please don’t let your hours go unaccounted. Volunteer hours recorded by May 31 will not only go towards your Pirates Cove admission, but if you earn 50, 75 or 100 volunteer hours, you will be awarded special BFA logo'd items (distributed at Pirate's Cove check-in) to show our appreciation for going above and beyond! 

Please note: No additional tickets will be sold at the door. This is an event ONLY for those families who have met and recorded their volunteer hours in Help Counter by midnight Tuesday, May 31. No exceptions will be made.

Next week, Cave Dave will be returning to BFA and will bring CaveSim to kids in grades K-5. 

If you would like to help out with this in-house field trip, please see the SignUpGenius. The event will be outside in the preschool parking lot so dress accordingly.

Please email Mrs. Ward know if you have any questions.

Incoming kindergarten parents – you’re welcome to sign up your student for the Kindergarten Boot Camp this summer! Students will be introduced to the Kindergarten academic atmosphere and to BFA's campus. Students will become familiar with kindergarten rules, expectations, activities, and have fun! Boot camps will be held from 9 – 11 a.m., June 6 - 9 and June 13 – 16.

Students who attend the camp will meet new friends so school in the fall won’t be quite as intimidating. Sign up here for one of the sessions (16 slots per session). The registration fee is $80. Please see the flier for additional details and email Ms. Monica McGinty at mmcginty@bfacademy.org with any questions.

If you enjoy science labs and experiments, come join us for one or both weeks of science camp this summer. Biology Camp will be June 13 - 15, with the focus on Biology. If you love learning more about life science, or a career as a doctor interests you, then you will love Biology Camp. We will learn interesting facts about vertebrates and invertebrates while dissecting more than six different animals including starfish, frogs, crayfish, worms, clams and a mini shark. 

Chemistry Camp will be July 11-13. If you love things that fizz, bubble, change color and form, or explode, then Chemistry Camp will be the perfect camp for you. We will focus on physical and chemical changes with dry ice, different types of slime, polymers, elephant toothpastes, fruit volcanoes, and so much more. Each day will have a new theme, and students will go home with experiments to show the family. For more information on either camp, see the links below.

•  Biology Camp 
•  Chemistry Camp