Weekly Newsletter Mar 12

Dear Parents-

Thank you for your generosity to the Student Council’s charity drive for the Backpack Society! We made sizable food and financial donations because of your dedication to supporting those in need in our community. We will report the total for monetary donations after spring break.

Please see our March Attendance Madness bracket later in this newsletter to see which classrooms made it past our first round of competition last week! Mrs. DePasse’s kindergarten class had the highest overall attendance average last week at 96.2%! Way to go!

CMAS testing will start soon after we return from Spring Break (April 6-15). The testing schedule and other information about state testing can be found on our State-Mandated Testing page. Please check the schedule and arrange appointments, trips, or other activities around the testing schedule.

Also coming up in April are our 3rd and 5th-grade Science Fairs. Please keep an eye out for volunteer opportunities, as we always need judges to help evaluate the projects the students work so hard on.

I have asked all teachers and staff to put on their out-of-office email responses for next week’s break. All emails received over break will be answered when we return. Everyone needs the week to recharge and prepare for the last nine weeks of the year

Have a wonderful break!

Mrs. Simpson

March 16 to 20 - Spring Break (No School)

March 23 - Summer Camp Weekly Registration Opens

March 25 - Class/Grade Picture Day

Click below to view our calendar. You can even click on each calendar item for more information.

To learn more & view role descriptions, please visit their webpage, and click on Volunteers and Elections. Together, we make BFA an amazing community for our students!

OPEN LEADERSHIP ROLES (Executive Team & Committee Chairs are elected by the BFA parent community):

CEC will have several open positions for the 2026–27 school year, and we would love to welcome new members to our team. The following roles are currently available and carry a two-year commitment.

• Treasurer
• Veteran’s Day Lead

The BFA STEM Committee is excited to announce our upcoming Spring Family Fun Night! The event will be held on March 12 from 5:00 p.m. - 7:00 p.m. What will the competition be, you might be asking? Get ready for a Raingutter Regatta! ⛵🏁

This is a FREE event welcome to all BFA students and families! For the event, family teams will build and race sailboats. Each team will compete to see which sailboat can cross the finish line first. Ribbons will be awarded to teams for 1st, 2nd and 3rd place, along with a people’s choice award for favorite boat! The event will include a scientific demonstration and a preview of competition rules. Some light snacks and refreshments will be provided during the event as well.

To help supply the materials for this event, we are requesting a donation of recyclable bottles! Please drop off in the bin by the BFA main entrance doors!

Interested in attending?? Sign up to participate in this free, fun, STEM-tastic evening of friendly competition at BFA!

Choice A:

Rolling Greens Me-EAT Nachos (Plant-Based "Beef")

Choice B:

Rotisserie Chicken Sandwich

It has been updated in NutriSlice, so we wanted you to be aware of the change.

The PTO’s online spirit wear store (in partnership with locally owned and operated Denver Athletic) will open one last time this year and will close tomorrow, Friday, March 13. There are many terrific items for warmer weather and spring sports. You can place your order and pay online through the Denver Athletic website. Pay special attention to the notes about items that are approved for the classroom. All orders need to be in by Friday, March 13, when the store will close so items can be processed. No orders will be accepted after March 13. Merchandise will be delivered to your student’s classroom in April.

Not only do we have classroom-approved sweatshirts and spirit day shirts (remember, every Friday is a spirit wear day!), there are additional tops, shorts, hats, and more! Show off your school spirit and support the PTO by placing an order today. Don’t wait – this is the last time that the spirit wear store will be open this school year!

A few things to note when ordering:

• classroom and spirit day approved items are noted as such

• make sure you’re ordering the correct size (youth or adult)

• everything is custom made to order - no refunds or exchanges

• hoodies are approved for middle school only

If you have any questions, please email Gen Townsend, PTO spirit wear committee manager.

This year, our students will receive a special combination T-shirt celebrating our 15-Year Anniversary and Field Day! 🎉👕.

Thank you PTO, for purchasing all the shirts for our students and staff. 💙🤍❤️

Students will wear their shirts on April 23 and again during their assigned Field Day time.

To ensure each student receives the correct size, we ask that parents complete the Student T-Shirt Form by 📅 March 23.

If a size is not submitted by the deadline, the following default sizes will be ordered:

• PreK–Grade 1: Youth Small

• Grades 2–3: Youth Medium

• Grades 4–5: Youth Large

• Grades 6–8: Adult Small

Thank you for helping us make this celebration comfortable and fun for all of our students! 🎈

Due to the Increased popularity in the Oh, the Places You'll Go! books, if you would like teachers to sign the book, we need to do this annually starting in April. Please submit your books by April 30, as no submissions will be accepted after that date.

New Steps to Follow:

• Email the teacher to let them know the book is coming.
• When dropping off your book, please include the student’s name and a list of teachers who need to sign.
• Email the teacher to let them know the book is with the student or at the front office.
• The teacher will communicate with you when it is ready at the front office or will send it home with the student.
• Books that will be picked up at the front office can be picked up between 9:00 a.m. and 2:00 p.m. when school is in session.

We appreciate your help with this special tradition for your student.

April 8 at 5:00 pm

Disneyland Choir Elective Interest Meeting

In the Middle School Commons

During the 2026-2027 school year BFA is proud to offer a middle school choir elective that will be performing at Disneyland.

These students will commit to a year-long elective to learn choral and sight-reading techniques.

In April, we will travel to Disneyland to perform and to take a workshop with Disney performers.

We plan to only offer this opportunity once every three years so this will be current middle

school students’ only opportunity to participate. We are only able to offer 40 spots, first come

first serve. Students will not audition for this choir. All who are interested in learning to sing better are welcome!

We would like to invite all current 5th, 6th, and 7th graders and their families

who are interested to join us at an initial information meeting

Our newest Lexia Superstar, Lauren Bullock, has completed all 21 levels of Lexia Core5—an incredible accomplishment that reflects dedication, perseverance, and a lot of hard work. Because of this achievement, Lauren will now move on to the Lexia middle school program.

We are so proud of Lauren for reaching this milestone. Way to go! 👏🎉

This week, our students will reach an exciting milestone—1,000 certificates earned in Lexia Level Up! 🎉 This is a schoolwide achievement that reflects the dedication, perseverance, and hard work our students have shown as they continue building their literacy skills.

Congratulations to all of our students for the effort they’ve put into their learning. We are so proud of the commitment they’ve shown in working toward their Lexia goals!

We would also like to give a HUGE thank you to Ellen Cain, Sarah Harrell, Emily Pitrone, and Sarah Russell for facilitating in the mornings to support students as they work on Lexia. Your support makes a big difference and helps our students succeed. 👏📚

Whether it is a volunteer or staff member, bulletin boards are a great way to fill our hallways with work or information.

We have partnered with the Colorado Rapids to reward and incentivize attendance here at Ben Franklin Academy by giving students with excellent attendance in the month of February, March and April, a complimentary ticket to a Rapids match with the purchase of an adult ticket.

The Rapids boast one of the most family-friendly and fun game day experiences in town. From celebrating the goals together, to the roar of the stadium crowd, to the hot dogs at halftime, Colorado Rapids games are where memories can be made. Students who qualify will receive a ticket link voucher to redeem their complimentary ticket with the purchase of additional discounted tickets. Vouchers will be redeemable for Rapids home games.

Parents will receive an email with a ticket voucher at the beginning of each month.

Summer Camp at BFA

February 23 - Registration Fee is Now Open ($35 one time fee)

The initial registration fee of $35 per child is now open. As a reminder, this registration fee includes one summer camp t-shirt and one day pack. Extra t-shirts can be purchased, once camp begins, for $15 each. The registration fee is non-refundable. We do not offer drop-in care or partial week registrations.

If you would like a copy of the activity calendars (available after spring break) or have any questions, please email Leigh Savoy at summercamp@bfacademy.org.

Harper Arts is excited to welcome students for another year of music-making! Fall lesson registration is now open for private lessons in voice, piano, guitar, and ukulele. Our lessons are designed to be fun, encouraging, and personalized so that students can build strong musical skills while developing confidence and creativity.

Students of all experience levels are welcome, from beginners exploring music for the first time to experienced musicians looking to grow their skills. Throughout the year, students also have opportunities to perform and celebrate their progress in recitals and studio events.

🌞🔆🔆Summer Music Camps🔆🔆🌞
Looking for something fun and creative this summer? Harper Arts will offer small, interactive music camps where students can sing, learn beginner piano skills, explore musical theatre, play music games, and work together on fun performance projects. Camps are designed to be engaging, confidence-building, and perfect for elementary and middle school students.

Space is limited for both fall lessons and summer camps.

School Uniforms by Tommy Hilfiger, our school uniform provider, is offering a school uniform promotion this week. The more you buy, the more you'll save. 10% off discount up to $149.99, 15% off $150-$249.99, and 20% off for any orders $250+.

The promo code at checkout: MC26BMSMEM. Please note that that promo code will ONLY work during these days of the promotion: March 16 - 23.

DCSD has informed us that DCSD emails to many parents are landing in SPAM folders.

"In an era of increasingly aggressive email filtering, we need your help to ensure vital district updates reach every staff member.

Please make it a habit to check your Spam folder periodically. If you find any legitimate district correspondence there, please mark it as "Not Spam." This simple action is the most effective way to retrain the delivery algorithms and ensure that district-wide communications, emails from students, emails from colleagues, etc. don’t get missed."

Please read their latest newsletter here.

Mission:

Our mission is to create young adults with character like America's founding Renaissance man, Benjamin Franklin: well-read, scientifically curious, and civically engaged.

Vision:

Our students will excel academically through a challenging, sequenced curriculum that emphasizes math, science, the arts, and literacy. We will be a data-driven institution, focusing on individual students. Our students, teachers, parents, staff, and leaders will be held accountable for the success of our school. Finally, we recognize that an education is incomplete without fostering social emotional development, character, sports, and nature.

13 Virtues:

Temperance, Silence, Order, Resolution, Frugality, Industry, Sincerity, Justice, Moderation, Cleanliness, Tranquility, Purity and Humility.