Our opening-of-school programs are geared toward helping everyone get acclimated to Milton. During the opening of school, all students—new and returning—will engage with each other, faculty, and staff. Each person at our school is a part of our community and contributes to the Milton environment in big and small ways. Dates for the start of programming are as follows:

• August 31–September 1: International Student and Family Welcome Program
• September 2–4: Transition Program for students of color and international students (residential for all students) 
• September 4–7: New and returning boarding students move in to their houses
• September 5: Start of athletic tryouts
• September 6–7: New Student and Family Welcome and Orientation (Day 1 is for families and students; Day 2 for students only)
• September 8–9: Required all-school programming for all new and returning students
• September 12: Classes begin (blue week)

For a detailed list of events happening before classes begin, please visit the Opening of School Calendar. Use the controls in the right column of this calendar to filter the events you’d like to view.

Click here for an overview of orientation programs.

The Upper School Parents’ Association (USPA) is a self-sustaining organization dedicated to building community and fostering communication between school administration and parents, and we hold several events for students and parents throughout the year. As an Upper School parent, you are automatically a member of the USPA, and we welcome you to attend our meetings which are held every month via Zoom. These informational sessions are conducted with Head of School Todd Bland, Bland, Upper School Principal Monica Palmer, Dean of College Counseling Rod Skinner, Academic Dean Heather Sugrue, Dean of Students José Ruiz, Dean of Faculty Marvin Gutierrez, Director of Residential Life Anika Walker-Johnson, Director of Counseling Lisa Morin, and Director of Nursing Peg Reardon, R.N. along with a few external speakers. These sessions begin with updates and conclude with a Q&A so you are aware of the latest developments at Milton’s Upper School.

We have an exciting year planned for 2022–23. We cordially invite you to become involved, whether you live nearby or on another continent. We welcome you to connect with us via Facebook and Instagram to foster an engaged parent community.

As a USPA member you can also join PIN (The Parents’ Independent School Network, a volunteer-run, parent organization of Boston-area independent schools), and attend informational meetings on non-academic issues of mutual concern and interest to the parent community. For more information on PIN, visit their Facebook page.

You can find more information about upcoming USPA events on our webpage www.milton.edu/parents/parents-association.

The faculty, parent, and student events sponsored by the USPA are made possible by your generous contributions of time, funding, and gifts. Your time and effort as volunteers and your parent dues and donations make every USPA event possible. Thank you!

As a Milton parent or guardian, you will hear from the school regularly—from updates on important logistical details to highlights of student life. Below are regular communications you can expect from the Upper School:

Deans’ Office Communications. Dean of Students José Ruiz and Academic Dean Heather Sugrue send a biweekly Deans’ Office Newsletter, which contains important updates, key dates, cultural and athletic highlights for the months ahead, and fun weekend activities for day and boarding students. Ms. Sugrue also sends academic updates, including information about faculty comments, grades, exams, and course selection. Assistant Dean of Students André Heard may also provide updates on student life.

Administrative and Emergency Communication. Principal Monica Benton Palmer and Head of School Todd Bland occasionally email parents about time-sensitive issues of particular importance. Milton uses Rave Alerts to notify parents, students, and employees about weather-related cancellations and delays or campus emergencies. While rare, when needed these communications are sent simultaneously via text messages, phone calls, and emails.

You can also connect with goings-on at Milton—formal and informal—and see what students and faculty are doing in several easy ways:

Check the website every day. Milton’s homepage delivers up-to-date news in many forms. Timely feature articles highlight student, faculty, and alumni activities. Video and photos let you in on fun, ceremony, performance, and exhibits.

Set up Milton’s calendar to serve you. Milton’s online calendar includes major and minor events involving Milton students, faculty, or staff. When you explore the calendar, you can add events to your own calendar and sign up for email alerts. You can set it to sync or email a single event or a category of events. You’ll see “Add to my calendar” and “Remind me by email” on the top bar of the calendar listings. Simply decide what works best for you and choose the option you’d like.

Dive deep into Centre Connection, Milton’s online parent newsletter. This newsletter, Centre Connection, is the place to see a full art exhibit; learn about Milton’s performances and who’s participating in them; or hear a presentation by a well-known public figure delivering one of Milton’s endowed lectures. Centre Connection is published five times each year. You’ll enjoy scanning the news updates and fun features.

Follow Milton on social media. Worth a thousand words, Instagram posts from @miltonacademy capture and share slices of school life. Use the Instagram icon on the homepage to find and follow Milton Academy. You can also join us on Facebook for news and updates from the school.

Participate in parent events. The Parents’ Association webpage will update you on parent events, volunteer opportunities, and other news.

Read the student newspapers. Two other informative and often-humorous sources of information are the student newspapers, the Milton Measure and the Milton Paper.

“Opportunities for connection, compassion, and hands-on learning together continue to be essential for our students and our partner communities,” says Andrea Geyling-Moore, faculty director of Milton’s Community Engagement Programs and Partnerships (CEPP).

Once classes are underway for the 2022–23 academic year, students will have the opportunity to sign up for volunteer assignments. More than 20 regular partners are eager to stay connected through tutoring, multigenerational activities, the arts and athletics, events to raise funds and awareness, and more.

Student leaders on the Community Engagement Board look forward to furthering CEPP’s mission of building an anti-racist community within the campus and beyond. Partner organizations include the Boston Public Schools, Urban Farming Institute, Hebrew Senior Life, Milton Residences for the Elderly, Immigrant Family Services International, and Milton’s own Lower School. Updates will be communicated to students via email, on Instagram @ma_communityengagement, and on the MiltonConnect app.

For more details about CEPP programs, visit the Community Engagement page, which will be updated as the school year unfolds. As we receive more information about community partner needs, we appreciate parent volunteers who may be able to help transport our students to local sites. Parents can contact Andrea Geyling-Moore at community_engagement@milton.edu or 617-898-2320 to answer any questions or get information on volunteering.

Students are encouraged to download MiltonConnect, a smartphone app that will provide a full slate of activities from the Student Activities Office and from student clubs and organizations across the School.

The app is supported by CampusGroups, a platform Milton began using in 2020–2021 to centralize activities, said Student Activities Director Kelly Reiser.

In the first few weeks of school, the Student Activities Office will be hosting a variety of events for all students including a back-to-school carnival on Friday, September 9. Parents and guardians will receive information about upcoming student activities through the Deans’ Office newsletter. Activities also appear on the school’s calendar.

An advisor is a faculty or staff member who helps oversee and guide your child’s overall experience at Milton. They are the main communication link between you and the school on matters that relate to your child. Each advisor typically advises four to eight students and many students have the same advisor throughout their Upper School experience.

What should I expect of my child’s relationship with their advisor?

All Milton advisors want to help students maximize their opportunities for academic and personal growth at Milton. Every advisor is committed to getting to know each advisee and to their success as an individual at Milton Academy. Your child should feel comfortable reaching out to their advisor for information, support, or ideas. Advisors typically meet and talk with their advisees frequently—in a group or individually, depending on schedules. Advisors will either be able to answer your child’s questions (or your own) about school policies, academic and otherwise; find the correct answers and get back to your child or you; or help your child seek out the answers they need. Part of the relationship aims to strengthen your child’s skilI of self-advocacy. If a student is involved in any academic or disciplinary difficulty, the advisor is part of the team that will help guide your child. Some students develop close relationships with their advisors; other students develop those same close relationships with other faculty and staff members. Regardless, an advisor will serve as a responsive person always willing to listen, support, and help direct an advisee.

What should I expect from my child’s advisor?

You can expect to be able to turn to the advisor for a sense of your child’s life at Milton, and to get an adult perspective on how your child is doing relative to the challenges of growing up and taking responsibility for their learning and experience at the school. You can expect that the advisor will know about regulations, policies, and typical patterns of teenagers as they respond to the particular demands of each year in high school. The advisor will write summary reports about your child’s progress in November, February, and June. You can expect that an advisor will reach out to you during the first weeks that your student is new to Milton, and thereafter, as well, when the need to let you know about something affecting your child arises. Conversely, if you reach out to the advisor, by phone or email, the advisor will get back to you—and can suggest who to talk to at Milton for any issues that may arise. The advisor’s central relationship is with the student—but the advisor also works in partnership with parents to ensure the best possible experience at Milton.

What is my responsibility to the advisor?

Relevant information about a student always helps an advisor relate to a child more and better assist. If family or developmental issues could affect a child’s experience at school, then be sure to reach out to the advisor. If you observe patterns that trouble you, whether your child lives at Milton or at home, or if your family is facing a challenge, let your child’s advisor know. If you have a question, or are unsure how to direct it, please contact your child’s advisor.

What is a class dean?

Parents should feel free to reach out to class deans as well. The class deans assume overall responsibility for members of each class. The class deans supplement, but do not replace, a student’s individual advisor. Class deans coordinate the work of all the advisors guiding students in a given class, and are responsible for supervising class activities. Class deans also work with student leaders to plan class events and to establish positive and respectful relationships within the class.