Hello BBA Big Horn Family,

Thank you for an incredible year at BBA! As principals, we (Ms. Katie and Coach Rudd) are incredibly proud of what BBA has become. This page is to celebrate some of our amazing BBA accomplishments in the 2023-2024 school year. We hope you see the joy, love, and community we have built together - we are so proud of our students and staff and so grateful to our families!

​Battle Born Academy had a year of dramatic and exciting growth. We doubled in size, reaching 265 students and their families. We also moved into our permanent facility following renovations and have made our community home. Despite difficulties with construction, our families were energetic, thoughtful, and eager to make the best of our year at BBA. Thank you families for your patience and love for us in this process! 

One major goal for this year was to reduce chronic absenteeism. Students coming to school matters deeply in their ability to feel connected and achieve academic milestones. In 2022-2023, in keeping with national trends, BBA had a 38% chronic absenteeism rate. This year through intensive supports for students and ongoing conversations with families, BBA reduced state-level chronic absenteeism to 20.5%, a huge difference in one year! This partnership with families has been awesome!

It poured down rain on the first day of school! BBA Co-Principal Kathy Rudd was soaked but smiling as she welcomed students!

Another big goal for the year was student work portfolios and WOW! The portfolios our students have put together are a testament to their growth and hard work. You can see everything from class work to test scores in these portfolios, but our personal favorites are the student reflections where they share how they see themselves growing and changing. ​

One highlight of the year is BBA Nights, where students showcase their work. An impressive moment from a BBA Night this year was our seventh grade Shark Tank event. After learning about engineering and innovative designs, students studied different problem areas of interest to them, designed solutions, 3D-printed models of their designed, and pitched their proposals to investors (Sharks) at BBA Night. Students had to compete for the top spots and presented phenomenal products that inspired the audience. At the younger grades, one fantastic BBA Night project this year was a kindergarten animal safari where they designed and built habitats, drew their animals and labeled body parts and exciting facts, and led their audience through an animal safari. We had second grade world-travelers, first grade astrophysicists, sixth grade rocket scientists, and much more. Projects are truly the highlight at BBA! 

Our kindergarteners loved their visiting Macaw!

Another highlight was expanding our elective offerings to include music, art, and P.E. Students were thrilled to have both variety and choice in their specials and electives courses and we were able to offer middle school two electives in their day for the first time. It was fantastic to see more showcases of student art work at BBA Nights - we saw drum performances and choir songs alongside art pieces students created, such as bird houses, sculptures, self-portraits, and clay work. Students in middle school took nuanced and insightful courses such as Music Around the World and Intertwining Art & Poetry. These courses sparked passion and ideas for lifelong learning. Additionally, BBA offered an after-school elective lead by one of our teachers where students could learn Spanish. Thank you, Coach Marino, for teaching us Spanish! 

We also took more field trips this year, including a trip to the planetarium, a college-readiness trip to UNLV, and an animal exploration day with birds, alpacas, snakes, and more!

Spanish club ended with a chicken taco fiesta! 

Ms. Angela works with a small group of students on their ELA skills in the sunshine.

Another highlight was the development and expansion of our Special Education services. We were so proud to welcome Johnesha Powell and John Barela to this team and their leadership has taken them far! We also had amazing Special Education Teaching Assistants, especially Ms. Angela!

​This department has worked tirelessly to provide strong services to students. They have been data-driven and thoughtful to ensure every student was getting what they needed. In a small school with ever-increasing numbers of special education services, they have provided each student with detailed plans and ensured we are not only meeting the letter of the law, but doing right by every student and family.

​In keeping with this, we implemented a much more robust RTI program this year, helping to support students who are struggling academically. This focused primarily on literacy and we saw big gains from many of our students. Their motivation and academic results both increased. 

Finally, a big highlight this year was our mental health counseling program. BBA provides on-site mental health counseling through a full-time licensed mental health counselor. BBA students engage in individual and group therapy, as well as family therapy as necessary. Nearly 25% of BBA students receive these services. Ms. Robin also engages community partners and refers parents to community resources. Additionally, we bring in more supports for mental health, including two UNLV counseling clinical interns to provide group and individual therapy under a supervised licen​se. We also partner with outside services. One of these is Mingo Health Services, who provided a weekly music therapy class and an as-needed social case manager for family services. Others among these were Boy's Town, St. John's University School of Mental Health, Solutions of Change, My Brother's Keeper, and more. Most of these groups provided individual learning sessions for sub-groups of students, such as a middle school boys group and a middle school girls group. This year, we hosted our first BBA Wellness Day where students learned about nutrition, mental health, and more in a community of support and joy.

At middle school boys group, sixth and seventh graders collaborated in games and then reflected on teamwork, self-awareness, and more.

Overall, it was an amazing year at Battle Born Academy and we could not be prouder of the growth in our community! Our students are soaring to new heights academically and our parents have been proud supporters and champions of their work. A final thank you to our phenomenal BBA staff, who truly make this school wonderful, joyful, and welcoming for each and every student. 

With love, gratitude, and Big Horn pride! 
Coach Rudd and Ms. Katie
BBA Co-Principals & Co-Founders