A Message from the Principal

Good is the enemy of great.

             In a widely read book, Good to Great, by Jim Collins, he points out Good is the enemy of great.  BFA this year has made the commitment to move from a good school to a great one!  Our vision is direct and simple:  Improved student performance for all students.  We have taken several steps to turn this vision into reality by expanding our curriculum, building better communications with parents through K-12 Planet, expanding our school-to-work efforts to connect all graduating seniors with genuine career opportunities with local area business, completing a comprehensive study of our facility needs through Opportunities for Growth, and engaging in a meaningful discussion with the community about these needs.  These are but a few examples of how BFA is moving forward to achieve our vision. We are already seeing results from our efforts.  Our juniors put serious effort into taking NECAP, the statewide assessment used to measure school performance under No Child Left Behind and our Advance Placement program shows seniors scored higher on their critical reading (formerly verbal), math and writing sections of their SAT.  Sixty-five percent (65%) of the senior class took the SAT and critical reading scores rose 22 points, the math rose 17 points and the writing scores rose 25 points from the previous year, and the class of 2007 saw 75% commit to attend college or post-secondary education up from 72% in the class of 2006.  In addition to observing our growth in student performance, we have also experienced outstanding school spirit highlighted in our Green and Gold campaign with our faculty and student body proudly wearing their gold T-shirts at our fall pep rally, recognizing everyone for their participation and contributions to BFA. 

             What is in store for BFA to continue to move from a good to great?  The faculty and staff have been working very hard to improve student performance by having better student to student relationships, teacher to student relationships, teacher to teacher relationships, teacher to parent relationships and time for collaboration. To make this happen, BFA will be changing the school class schedule next year.  Currently, we have used a trimester class schedule which has students changing courses every 12 weeks.  Next year, we plan to move to a semester schedule that will have students changing courses every 18 weeks allowing more time for students and teachers to work together building more consistency in what students study over the course of the school year.  A semester schedule will increase the amount of time students have to participate in advisory, increase the amount of time teachers will have for collaboration and increase the amount of time teachers will have for communicating with parents.  In addition to changing to a semester schedule, BFA plans to move the start time of the first class from the current 7:35 a.m. to 8:00 a.m. and dismissing student at 3:05 p.m. instead of the current 2:35 p.m. moving our starting time will give our teenagers an extra 25 minutes to be fully alert and ready for their classes.

             Being a great high school represents our commitment to each student at BFA.  Our changes are set to increase the quantity and improve the quality of interactions between students, teachers and parents.  Our semester schedule will allow BFA to implement a comprehensive advisory program that ensures that each student has frequent and meaningful opportunities to plan and assess his or her academic and social progress with a faculty member.  Finally, our semester schedule will allow teachers time to interact with colleagues to assess instructional strategies and assessments to accommodate individual learning styles.  Our commitment to creating a great high school forms the foundation for improving the performance of each student at BFA. 

BFA has made this commitment!