January 2022 Newsletter ❄️

Date: January 7th, 2022

Click the image below to watch a video of December highlights from Buford Academy!

Click here to sign up for All Pro Dad

The cookies and cocoa 5K race event raises funds to support Children's Healthcare of Atlanta and Buford City Schools Career and Technical Student Organizations, allowing students to compete and travel to competitions.

This year the race will be on Sat, Jan 22. The $30 entry fee includes a long sleeve t-shirt. This is a great opportunity for students and families to have fun together and give back to our community. The link to sign up is here.

If you are interested in becoming a partner with us in our 3rd Annual Cookies & Cocoa 5k Fun Run sponsorship details can be found here.

Welcome back BA Families! Below are some gentle reminders…

For the safety of our students and staff, no parking in any fire lane.
Morning car-rider line is closed at 8:15 am.
Please do not send your child to school if he or she is not feeling well.

We look forward to a wonderful Semester 2!

When signing up for lunch, please remember to scroll down to find your student's teacher before selecting a slot. Teacher names and lunch times are listed on the left hand side of each section.

Green Lunch Sign Up

Gold Lunch Sign Up

Dear Families,

We are happy to welcome you back to lunch with your child. Below are a few important lunch reminders....

1. Only two individuals, listed in PowerSchool, (including baby or child) can visit for lunch. Space is very limited.

2. Parents are welcome to purchase school lunches.

3. Ice cream must be prepaid. No ice cream money can be accepted in the cafeteria.

4. Parents may only eat with their own child.

Thank you for your continued support!

Buford Academy Cafeteria News:

The Buford City School Nutrition Program employees recognize that food is important to all children and these employees believe that good nutritional habits learned at school contribute to students' lifelong health and wellness.

SY21-22 Free and Reduced Meal Application Information and Link:

Free/Reduced Lunch Link

ESOL Adventures:

Our ESOL students have had a "cool " start to the New Year, and we’re excited about all our learning in reading, writing, speaking and listening! Our first, second and third graders are working on several strategies to help with reading comprehension. We are learning to look for clues in the text and illustrations to determine the point of view. That helps us figure out who was telling the story. We are also learning to find the main idea and supporting details in the text. We are working on finding text evidence when reading a passage. Ask your child what it means to “make a match” (finding an answer to a question in the story). Lastly, we are working on making inferences when reading stories. The Wolf Wall on our website has many great learning opportunities for your child as well as your child's ESOL Canvas page. At home, please remember to give your child plenty of opportunities to speak. Having conversations with them is key to language acquisition. We will be administering the state mandated ACCESS for ELLs (Assessing Comprehension and Communication in English State to State for English Language Learners) from February 8th-March 4rd. This test is used to monitor the progress of ESOL students in the areas of reading, writing, listening, and speaking. On Wednesday, January 12th, ESOL teachers will presenting at the BCS Parent Engagement Night. This event will offer exciting workshops for parents that provide great ideas for helping children be successful at home and school as well as familiarize parents with the ACCESS testing for ELs. We would love to see you there!

PTO Place:

Current 3rd Grade families, if you are interested in serving on the BSA PTO Board for the 2022 - 2023 school year, please contact kaleen.pulley@bufordcityschools.org.

Current 1st and 2nd Grade families, if you are interested in serving on the BA PTO for the 2021 - 2022 school year, please contact elena.vo@bufordcityschools.org.

*Nominations will be accepted through February 15th

Be on the lookout for some information regarding the upcoming Wolf-a-Thon! We can’t wait to share with you all the fun and exciting things we have planned!

Media Center Central:

Hello to the New Year 2022! Excited to see what this new year has in store for Buford Academy!

We had a very busy December with Santa Shop and then we immediately began packing up for new carpet in the media center. We are ready to start the year off with a new vibe and it looks great! It was so wonderful to see the joy within the students as they were able to go shopping for their family members within the Santa Shop.

Semester 2 we get to see some major growth with many of our students in their reading levels. If you have any questions about Accelerated Reader (AR), feel free to reach out to me at lana.nix@bufordcityschools.org. We are getting to see more and more students added to our Million Word Club wall as well as our Points Club wall for 100-500 points in AR. We are so very proud of our students and their continued love for reading. Should your students not know what to read next, be sure to have them find Mrs. Nix for a few great titles.

Happy New Year!

Lana Nix

Buford Academy Media Specialist

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Parents, take a minute to read through these flyers about fluency. There are some great points and helpful tips for reading with your child at home.

English Fluency Flyer

Spanish Fluency Flyer

Georgia Health Survey

Each year we are asked to complete the GA Student Health Survey. Students in 3rd grade will complete this survey in February. Click on the link below https://www.gadoe.org/wholechild/GSHS-II/Pages/Georgia-Student-Health-Survey-II.aspx to obtain additional information regarding this survey. If you do not want your child to participate in this survey, please email elena.vo@bufordcityschools.org (by Thursday, January 27th) requesting that your child not participate in the Georgia Student Health Survey.

Get your Buford Academy 2021-2022 Yearbook now:

Yearbooks are $35 and can be purchased online at https://www.balfour.com/georgia/buford/buford-academy

The link is on the homepage of our school website as well. Deadline to purchase a yearbook is on February 1st. Buy one now to reserve your yearbook.

Opening the Door To Parent Engagement

We are excited to share our improved Parent Engagement Center located in the BA front office. Our Parent Engagement Center is rich with multiple resources to support your child's learning in both reading and math. Our center offers learning games, learning tools, and leveled books ready for checkout. Please feel free to stop by from 8:45 -2:30 each day.

Right To Know

In compliance with the requirements of Every Student Succeeds Act, Buford City Schools would like to inform you that you may request information about the professional qualifications of your student's teacher(s) and/or paraprofessional(s). Click here https://www.bufordacademy.org/apps/pages/index.jsp?uREC_ID=1663687&type=d&pREC_ID=1776982

Federal Program Feedback Form -- Your opinion matters to us!

If you have any comments, ideas or suggestions for us to improve our Federal Program, we would like to hear it.

All parents, students, and community members are invited to be a part of our Federal Program Planning Team. This team usually meets once in May to review/revise Federal Program parent involvement documents and funding for the year.

Parents are also encouraged to complete all parent surveys. Surveys allow parents to offer us feedback regarding how we can best assist them in supporting their child.

Federal Program feedback (positive or negative) can be given at any time. Please contact Andrea Kiep for additional information.

andrea.kiep@bufordcityschools.org

Federal Programs Feedback Form