Milton Parents’ Newsletter
An evolving history of outreach

Before the wave of new technology that has made distance purely a physical matter, Milton Academy had few connections with parents, and parents had few with each other. Letters from the head of school or the Upper School principal, spaced widely and preceding major events throughout the school year, touched base with the facts, but did not give the flavor of school life – let alone address parents’ many questions. In 1991, Patricia Arnold, a parent and trustee, developed the idea of a periodic newsletter. Her idea was that it be a cooperative venture between the Milton and its parents. At the start, Milton staff planned and wrote the articles and sent the 8–page newsletter out to print. Local day parents from the Parents’ Association came in on a given weekday morning for labeling and stamping. School matters and Parents’ Association matters shared the space and soon parents began to depend on this view of life on campus.

Over the years, this model changed, aiming at greater frequency and relevance. Staff invited parents to become writers; members of the Parents’ Association became advisors to the staff on what parents wanted to read. The communications office scheduled annual meetings and reviews with the newsletters’ writers and the liaison from the Parents’ Association to evaluate the general editorial plan and map out the coverage for the year ahead. Feedback from parents led to new material, and the size of the publication grew. Editing the copy to fit 12 packed pages, printed five times each year, still left parents looking for more. Parents wanted faculty profiles, curriculum reviews, stories about School traditions, reflections of other parents. At the same time, they were looking for up to date calendars, rapid reviews of athletics and the arts, notices about parents’ weekend and other events open to parents, and plenty of photographs.

By last fall, after a survey of parents revealing that the vast majority wanted their information of this sort to be sent online, Milton’s communications department launched Centre Connection. In combination with the depth and breadth of the School’s Web site, this online newspaper can offer what parents and seeking, within Milton’s resources. Still based on an annual review with parents about what to continue, what to change, and what to add, Centre Connection offers parents both practical and interesting information in a predictable, accessible format, which they can get to know and depend upon. Not only can text in the Centre Connection change up to the moment before it is emailed, links to other areas of the Web make sure that parents can have up-to-date facts and photographs, as well as broader treatment of things they choose to investigate. Parent writers have more time to write, and can email us their articles from California, New Jersey or Texas. Each issue of the Centre Connection stimulates return email messages that are helpful in planning future issues, and in assessing how we’re doing. Finally, and perhaps most importantly, the ways Milton parents can reach us to let us know what they want answered, explored, or celebrated are many. Please see the article listing the many ways we hope you will send your thoughts our way.