On Monday, Sept. 21, Milford’s brand new before and after school program, Eagle Connect at Milford Elementary School, will officially begin.
The program will run Monday through Friday (full school days), 7-7:50 a.m. and 3:30-5:30 p.m., and will be offered to enrolled K-6 students. During the program, elementary students will get to engage in fun activities, early career exploration, and quality time with the high school students, who can put their class-learned tech and home education skills to practice.
Conversations involving a before/after school program first began in 2025 with a survey sent to parents to gauge their interest, but it wasn’t until this spring that parent and high school Health and Family Consumer Science teacher Mallory Gregory asked superintendent Dr. Mitch Kubicek if the idea had gone anywhere. Kubicek admitted that parents were interested, but the technicalities of a before and after school program were falling through. Gregory proposed integrating the childcare education and certification already being done at the high school to make the program possible, and from there, the two worked with the Milford Schools Foundation to bring Eagle Connect to life. Putting specifics together took a lot of work, and Gregory said she’s grateful for the amount of time and effort Kubicek dedicated to figuring this program out.
“Not every superintendent is going to put in the amount of work he did this summer,” Gregory said. “To even sit down and have the conversations, to talk with our insurance company, with the school, to have all those things happen—he did a lot of back-end work to say ‘yes’ to this and make it work for the students and families.”
As the program’s director, Gregory has also put in more than her fair share of time and work, applying for and winning a Beyond Schoolbells Grant to help fund the program. The Milford Schools Foundation is also helping with costs, though Kubicek assured community members that this will not interfere with any scholarship funds.
Gregory and Kubicek also agree that Eagle Connect will be a fantastic way for older and younger students to interact with one another, learn, and put learned-skills to use.
“This program will not only provide a place for students to be, but it’s also going to, hopefully, provide a connection with the high school kids in our district,” Kubicek said. “And it’s also going to provide an opportunity for our high school kids to get some real-life work-related experiences. Whether it’s working with childcare, or learning how to run a business, or helping with the design of the after school program activities.”
High school students 16 and older are eligible to work for the program—under the supervision of teachers and staff—and will be involved in a variety of ways. For example, Gregory’s culinary students will make the afternoon snacks. However students are involved, it will be a great way for them to gain some early work experience.
Gregory said she’s looking forward to getting students involved and having this kind of service be available to families in the area, and she also hopes the program will inspire kids to be curious about the world and where life might take them.
“It’s going to be so focused on movement, and STEM, and arts, and creativity . . . to have them build skills of purpose and confidence but also to just start exploring . . . opportunities for future careers,” Gregory said. “I think that career exposure at such a young age—not telling them, ‘You need to be this when you grow up,’ but letting them just experience experiences connected to skills they would use down the road [is so important].”
While the program currently only employs high school students aged 16 and older to help with these kinds of creative and early career experiences, there is talk of someday integrating student volunteers into the program. This way, middle schoolers and younger high school students can still be involved and connected. Gregory said there’s also a possibility of future collaborations with local college and university students going into teaching, childcare, and development.
For now, the program is set to start on Sept. 21, with enrollment currently open and remaining open throughout the school year. To best serve Milford families, Eagle Connect will allow parents to pick and choose what days and times they’d like their child to attend. They can do both mornings and afternoons, one or the other, or even choose specific days and times. That being said, attending children must be enrolled for their select days and times, and drop-ins will not be allowed.
In order to keep the program sustainable, it will also cost $3/day for morning attendance and $7/day for afternoon attendance (the latter costing more in order to cover snack costs). If parents, however, need assistance to cover fees, they can mark so on the enrollment packet, and Eagle Connect will help them through the process of applying for childcare subsidy coverage, which the program qualifies for since it is licensed through DHHS. And if for some reason families don’t qualify for childcare subsidies, Gregory said that Eagle Connect and the Milford Schools Foundation will do all they can to make enrollment work.
Enrollment for Eagle Connect is officially open and will remain open throughout the school year. Parents can scan the poster’s QR code or go to bit.ly/milfordeagleconnect to enroll their child.
