Help At-Risk Girls Graduate High School

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!