The Ben Franklin Academy (BFA) Board of Directors election voting window is now open! Please take a few minutes to cast your vote in the 2024 BFA Board election. To learn more about the candidates, please visit the Board Election webpage or click here to watch the candidate question and answer session from March 26. You can also choose to listen to the audio only version here.

Members of the BFA School Voting Group have from NOW until 11:59 p.m. (MST) on Friday, April 12, to cast their vote for Seat 1, Class A. Results of the election will be announced and the appointment for Seat 2, Class A will be made on April 16, at the regularly scheduled Board meeting. 

Your vote is important as the ability of BFA to carry out its mission and vision depends upon the strength of our organizational foundation, beginning with the Board of Directors. Members serving on the Board of Directors advocate for BFA’s educational philosophy, successfully fulfill legal requirements and carry out its mission and vision. Board directors use their backgrounds, experience and skills to focus on oversight and matters of strategic importance. Serving on the BFA Board is an opportunity to ensure that BFA is and remains The Core Knowledge STEAM School of Choice.

Click here to cast your vote in the 2024 BFA Board of Directors election. Note: Each family/employee should only vote once; for example, if you are a BFA employee and also have a student at BFA, you only get one vote. 

If you have ANY questions, please contact Adam Lucero at adaml@bfacademy.org or Keri Street at keri@bfacademy.org.

We've scheduled several Spirit Days throughout the year to recognize the season opener for some of our favorite teams within the community. Tomorrow, April 5, is Rockies Spirit Day when students may wear a Colorado Rockies (or other baseball team) shirt with regular uniform bottoms OR they can choose to wear a regular spirit wear shirt.

There will be no before-school care on Friday, April 19, as CEC will be hosting Daybreak with Dads and the morning BASE attendance is traditionally very low.

A message from the BFA STEM Committee...

We are so excited to see the partial solar eclipse that will be occurring during school hours on Monday, April 8. Classrooms will have the opportunity to view the event for a short period of time (around 20 minutes) between 11:30 a.m. - 1:50 p.m. on Monday.

Please take the time to carefully read and fill out the solar eclipse online permission form for your child to go outside to view the solar eclipse. The permission form will need to be filled out for each child by Monday morning, April 8.

If you have any questions about the event, please contact the STEM Coordinator, Kyle Nolting, at knolting@bfacademy.org. 

We're looking forward to this celestial celebration!

The School Accountability Committee (SAC) is meeting from 4:30 - 5:30 p.m. today, April 4, in the BFA Conference Room and via Zoom. All are welcome to attend! See the SAC Agenda for more information and the Zoom details.

The CEC is excited to host all students and their fathers (or other special adult) for a morning of fun from 6:45 - 7:45 a.m. on Friday, April 19, at BFA. The morning will begin in the Lightning (small) gym with donuts, breakfast burritos and refreshments. Festivities will continue in the Thunder (big) gym with a magician performance and photo opportunities. We ask that you arrive no later than 7:30 a.m. as this is a popular event. Fathers and students may begin leaving the gym at 7:45 a.m. so students can head to class. Students should be in their classrooms by the normal time (8:10 a.m.). Gluten free options will be available upon request.

Volunteer Opportunties

Volunteers are needed to help make this a special event. Please see the Daybreak with Dads sign-up for available volunteer positions. We thank you in advance for any assistance you are able to provide.

There will be NO BASE care the morning of April 19 due to this event.

There are only around seven weeks of school left—are you hoping to get some more volunteer hours so you and your family can go to the PTO’s Pirates Cove Volunteer Appreciation night?

If so, be sure to check out our Volunteer webpage. (There's a quicklink to this page from the BFA home page, just look for the hand icon that says Volunteer.) It’s updated frequently and is a great resource for parents looking for volunteer opportunities. In fact, we just added the Mother-Son event, Daybreak with Dads, and two opportunities from Mrs. Bauer who would like some help with the climbing wall and the fourth/fifth grade mile run.

Weekly registrations for the 2024 Summer Camp program are now open in MySchoolBucks.

Prior to registering for the weeks needed, you must first pay the initial registration fee of $35 per child. As a reminder, this registration fee includes one summer camp t-shirt and one day pack.

After you complete the initial registration for each student, you will be able to sign up for the weeks you need. The rate this year is $250 per week, per child. We do not offer drop-in care or partial week registrations. NOTE- The majority of the weeks are already full. If you do not see a week in the drop-down menu that means that week is no longer available.

The activity and field trip calendars have been sent out to parents who have paid the initial registration fee. If you would like a copy of the calendars or have any questions, please email Leigh Savoy at summercamp@bfacademy.org.

The BFA PTO will use RaiseRight for end of year staff gifting again this year. Collections will take place April 8-14 with gift cards being distributed during Teacher and Staff Appreciation Week (May 6-10).

Each family makes one payment for all of their teacher and staff gifts. At the end of collections, each staff member will receive an email with the total collected on their behalf and is able to select gift cards they would like to receive. Participation in the RaiseRight program is completely voluntary.

Follow these Simple Instructions to Gift Through RaiseRight

To place your RaiseRight order and pay with credit card, visit MySchoolBucks.com. Staff are grouped by grade or category; click here for a current staff list. Select the appropriate grade or category to open the group window. Use the dropdown menu to select the staff member you’re gifting and enter your gift amount in the “Amount to Pay” box. You may designate how much you would like to give to each teacher/staff member in whole-dollar increments. (You may also elect to have your student's name only, not gift amount, shared with the recipient when you place your order.) Repeat as many times as needed until all of your staff gift orders have been placed. And, don’t forget to check out when you’re all done!

Questions?

Visit the PTO webpage or email Rebecca Mullenix, RaiseRight committee manager, at bfascrip@bfacademy.org.

Calling all BFA moms and their sons! The mother-son social event will be held from 3-8 p.m. on Saturday, April 20, at Ben Franklin Academy.

This year, we will have a 9-hole LED mini golf course set up at the school. Tickets are on sale NOW through Sunday, April 14, on MySchoolBucks. Tickets are $25 per couple and $5 for each additional participant (with a maximum of $35 per family), and includes dinner. Please note that ticket sales are time specific based on the age of your child. Times may be adjusted based on total participants in order to accommodate everyone. New this year, PRESCHOOLERS ARE INVITED TO ATTEND!  

There is limited availability, so be sure to get your tickets early!

Volunteers Needed

The PTO needs your help to make this event a success. If you are interested in volunteering at the event you can sign up to help with Mother-Son social.

Please contact PTO Social Coordinator, Ewelina Chrzanowski, at ptosocial@bfacademy.org with any questions.

The PTO’s online fundraising auction is open for bidding NOW through 3 p.m. on Sunday, April 7! Click on the PTO online auction link to start bidding! Auction items include:

• VIP seating for 2024-25 grade level musicals
• VIP seating for the 2025 middle school musical
• Ride into school with Deputy Jensen
• Monthly parking spots for next school year
• Annual parking spots for next school year
• 2024 Eighth grade graduation VIP seating

Assistant Principal Zaccaria would like to gauge interest among BFA families with students in grades 5-8 about getting together for a family friendly hockey outing at South Suburban or Family Ice. If your fifth-eighth grade student and/or your family would be interested, please fill our this short three-question form.

If we get enough interest, we'll reach out with additional information.

Make plans to support one of our wonderful PTO sponsors at the next BFA spirit night from 8 a.m. - 7 p.m. on Sunday, April 21, at Robeks in Parker (12235 Pine Bluffs Way, 80134). Click to see the Robeks Spirit Night flier.

They will give back 10 percent to the BFA PTO for those who mention BFA in their order, so we hope you’ll stop by to enjoy their smoothies, juices, avocado toasts, and more!

Uniforms are an important part of school at Ben Franklin Academy, and this is the time of year when our uniform vendors have their best sales of the year! Educational Outfitters just sent us their uniform sale flier as well as a menu of options that you might find helpful. Parents also can purchase uniforms from two other vendors--French Toast and Tommy Hilfiger.

You can find out more about uniforms on our uniform webpage (click Uniforms to find vendor information). We’ll share additional sale information via our public Facebook page and/or in our newsletters, as we receive it.

Please see the letters below regarding the Colorado requirement for the Tdap vaccine for the sixth grade. If you have any questions or would like to submit documentation, please email our Health Room at health@bfacademy.org.

• T-Dap Letter (English version)
• T-Dap Letter (Spanish version)

Did you know that the PTO hosts a volunteer appreciation event at Pirate’s Cove to show our thanks to all families who complete their family’s volunteer recommendation (30 hours per family or 15 hours per single-parent household)?

This year, the event will be held from 6 - 8 p.m. on Saturday, June 8. This is always a fun evening, so be sure to log those volunteer hours as you complete them! 



Thank you to all the families who have volunteered this year. We sincerely appreciate all that you do for BFA!