It has been a very cold and snowy winter for us this year, but the halls of BSA have been bustling with activity nonetheless. Over the past few months, we’ve looked at BSA’s progress to date and hosted multiple community building events to strengthen our student and caregiver culture.
BSA recently did a comprehensive data analysis of our progress to-date. Specifically, we looked at attendance, grade point average (GPA), New York State Regents (state-mandated exams) performance, and engagement with our partner social service agency, The Door. Half-way through our third year, we have seen a lot of progress and student growth. Highlights from the above categories include:
We are pleased to see that our model is supporting students on their path to graduation, and we will continue to strive for further growth. Specifically, we are seeking more intensive and deliberate programming for students who are chronically truant, and developing additional cross-organizational programming with The Door, such as college access and career exploration.
School events have proven to be a positive method of engaging students and strengthening the BSA community. In December, BSA hosted its first annual Holiday Talent Show where students performed for friends and family through song, dance, musical instruments, monologues and more. Staff members and Board members also joined in on the fun. Entirely student-produced, everyone who participated felt great pride in putting on a fantastic display of talent. Having been such a great success, BSA plans to host an annual Talent Show moving forward.
As a means to further strengthen the caregiver community, BSA hosted its second annual Winter Wonderland Dinner in January. This pot luck style dinner brings staff, students and caregivers together around the dinner table to share a meal. The dinner functions as a positive space to build relationships with caregivers outside of the classroom. It was a very meaningful evening.
The second week of February was BSA’s Anti-Bullying Week, where teachers, staff and students lead workshops and programming on the negative impact of bullying and the positive impact of acceptance, encouragement and camaraderie. Throughout the week, students and staff wrote anonymous notes, aka “Warm and Fuzzies,” to students, which were then posted on a huge wall for the whole community to see. Students then located the messages sent to them to keep as reminders of their self-worth and positive addition to the BSA community.
Our second annual Winter Art Show is scheduled for March 13th from 6-8pm. Last year’s event was a huge success with over 100 pieces of art being sold. Half the proceeds of each piece go directly to the student artist, while the other half is donated to support the arts at BSA. It’s a fabulous, fun and free event and we encourage you to attend! Learn more and RSVP here today!
Once again, we sincerely appreciate your interest and support of BSA. Visit our website and join our mailing list to learn more about our school and stay up-to-date on events and activities.
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What a busy time of year! With fall festivities coming to an end and the holidays approaching, everyone’s schedules are packed to the brim, and we’re excited to share some exciting updates with you.
In September, BSA was a part of PBS/WNET’s American Graduate Day Campaign, a day-long broadcast dedicated to raising awareness of America's dropout phenomenon. BSA was selected to be highlighted as an organization committed to decreasing the dropout rate in New York City. An interview with three very special members of our community aired across the nation and can still be found on the American Graduate website! We asked viewers to share a Message of Hope to our students, encouraging them to continue working hard on obtaining a high school diploma. You can send a Message of Hope today, too, by visiting our website!
Reports on comparative data amongst New York City schools were recently published and showed that BSA has a lot to be proud of. The city compares BSA to peer schools, which are similar in size and population, and also to schools in the city at-large. BSA outperformed its peer schools in math, science and U.S. history Regents pass rates, and outperformed the city at-large in math and science! The annual student and parent surveys showed that BSA outperformed peer schools and the city-at large for ratings on engagement, communication, and academic expectations. It’s great to hear such positive feedback from our students and their families.
Lastly, after many months of construction and dedicated support from friends like you, we’ve finished BSA’s new Science Wing! For the first two years, we had operated without full science labs. The new Science Wing has three state-of-the-art labs designated for earth science, biology, and chemistry, (with physics to come next year).
To thank our supporters and celebrate the new space, we held a Ribbon Cutting event on November 13th, where we also took the time to introduce new Head of School, Ms. Barbara McKeon to the BSA community. It was a great success, especially as we had some of our brightest students helping out by giving tours of the new space. Students also gave stand out musical, theatrical and comedic performances. We were so thankful to have so many friends and supporters celebrate with us – it was a great event to show our students how many people care about them and their success! Check out our facebook page - we'll be adding pictures soon!
Once again, thanks to all of you for your interest in and support of BSA. If you want to learn more about our school, please feel free to visit our website and join our mailing list to stay up-to-date on all things BSA!
There is so much exciting news to share with you since our last report. We’ve since finished our second school year, completed a summer school session, enrolled new students to start this fall, and hired new teachers for our expanding school! We’ll be offering junior-level classes for the first time this year and we’ll be preparing for our final expansion to senior-level classes next year (when we’ll finally be a full-capacity 9-12 grade school!).
Our students worked hard during their final weeks. Nearly 80% of students sat for at least one New York State Regents exam, including the U.S. History, Integrated Algebra, Earth Science, Living Environment, English and Geometry exams. To celebrate our students’ hard work, we hosted an end-of-year awards ceremony, honoring students for their academics, community spirit, social justice, and more. We were so proud of all they accomplished this year.
In these past few summer months, our staff has really taken the reigns to shine! Most importantly, we recently announced a new leader. As of early August, we appointed Barbara McKeon as BSA’s new Head of School! Ms. McKeon has over 15 years of experience in the education field, with expertise in the special education sector. “My path to BSA has taken multiple turns along the way, but my goal has always been the same: to find smart, innovative ways to serve and strengthen the most vulnerable populations,” states Ms. McKeon. “That’s why I’m particularly excited to join BSA now, where this partnership with The Door means we can provide New York City’s most vulnerable youth with everything they need to find success on their way to graduation.” We’re really excited to have Ms. McKeon join the team at BSA!
Additionally, one of our founding teachers, Danielle Bero, was nominated as a Hometown Hero by the New York Daily News! Ms. Bero teaches one of our most popular freshman classes, Creative Writing. In this class, she challenges her students to write about tough, real world topics. But our students don’t shy away from the challenge. Through screenplays, poetry slams, and more, our students open up about their thoughts, feelings and emotions using literary elements and, often, a little bit of swag. Ms. Bero also coaches our basketball teams, and leads WORDS, a collaborative band that incorporates instruments and beats with vocals and spoken word. Ms. Bero is up against some stiff competition to win the Daily News’ Hometown Heroes Education Award, but we believe in her 100%! Good Luck, Ms. Bero!
We want to extend a big thank you to everyone who has supported us. If you want to learn more about our school, please feel free to visit our website and join our mailing list to stay up-to-date on all things BSA!
It’s springtime here in New York City and you know what that means…we have a ton of things going on as we get ready to finish our second year at BSA! First and foremost we are ramping up our academic instructional time with extended school days and Saturday School sessions. Our students have an extended academic instructional period each Wednesday through the beginning of June to recap important content, dig deeper into new materials, and get ready for those upcoming finals and New York State Regents exams. Students are also attending Saturday School sessions for exam practice, one-on-one and small group review sessions, and even some pizza for lunch. Our teachers are pulling out all the stops to make spending more time at school fun for our students and develop a culture of hard work and dedication to academics. We look forward to sharing our students’ successes at the end of the school year with all of you.
Our students also had a chance to learn and grow outside of the classroom. The female students traveled out of the city and upstate for a day-long field trip at the Ramapo Camp, where they got to take on physical and emotional challenges. The girls participated in a high-ropes course, working in teams of two to navigate across the ropes with strategy and balance. Their peers looked on from below and shouted out encouragement and advice to help them along the way. The rest of the day was spent in workshops devoted to teamwork, leadership, and enjoying the great outdoors!
Our Lady Warriors completed their first basketball season with a classy awards ceremony. This was the first year BSA offered a competitive female sports program, and we couldn’t be more proud of our team! The girls really came together to improve their skills both on the court and in the classroom. We’re sad the season is over, but we can’t wait for next year!
BSA recently held its Lottery Admissions event, where students were chosen from the well over 200 applications to join our school in the fall. We are working hard to prepare for next year as the student body will grow by over 100 students and expand to include a new grade level. Over 300 students will be enrolled in the 9th through 11th grades and we’ll be offering more classes than ever before. With students moving closer towards graduation, we’ll begin offering additional college prep and workforce development opportunities through our on-site partner, The Door. (www.door.org)
We want to extend a big thank you to everyone who has supported us. If you want to learn more about our school, please feel free to visit our website and join our mailing list to stay up-to-date on all things BSA!
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