BFA Middle School Anniversary

Henry Just a note to remind those involved that the Conference which led to the change in both structure and curriculum at BFA for grade 5-8 students was held twenty-five years ago between Thanksgiving and Christmas at Castleton State College in December , 1986 . It was the beginning of a new concept at our school ( students in that grade level and age group were not " younger high school students " , but worthy of teaching styles and activities which differed from elementary yet provided a venue for that group's learning styles and enthusiasm ) and it grew from the three school representatives who attended that session to a cadre of dedicated faculty that completely owned their new format .
These faculty members have mostly left BFA now , but the respect and admiration from this former administrator for their work has not been forgotten , and the original group ( Shirley Opstrop, Jan Jeffords, Jim Lonergan , Bernie Kuhn , David Duplissa, Lisa Griswold, Sandy Cantrell , Al Daniels, Pat Nilsson, Judy Alderman and Susan Juscwiez , together with the PE, Art, Music , and Reading specialists who supported them , along with the Library and Special Education Resource Personnel ) can never be given enough credit for the changes that they implemented .
We were fortunate to have in place the necessary School Board and Townspeople who supported this movement by allowing us to make changes in the traditional formats as we built the 1988 addition ( needed because of population growth ) , fortunate because both the elementary and secondary faculty members could envision positive outcomes from this new structure and publicly encouraged these efforts , and fortunate because the outcome from this team effort made a real difference in the long-term growth of our school . It is my hope that this twenty-five year old movement has been not forgotten , but in fact improved through the years .