AOG-sponsored after school program a success
Learn. Create. Excel.
Those three words are the motto of a program the Highland Falls-Fort Montgomery Community is coming to know very well.
Every day of the school week, all school year long, dozens of third through eighth grade students stay after school at the Highland Falls Intermediate School to take part in a two-hour (and three-hour for some students) after school program operated by West Point’s Association of Graduates. Called CONNECT, the program is in its second year.
Director Christine McDonald was at the most recent meeting of the Board of Education to talk about how the program is going so far this year; the impression the board got from her presentation was “very well”.
“CONNECT is a partnership,” McDonald told the BOE, saying that in the past year students have worked with USMA cadets on various programs; spent time at Highland Falls organizations like the Library, Historical Society, Ambulance Corps; have had elected officials come in to see the program in operation; have worked with local businesses on things like gardening; have high school students — from both O’Neill and Cornwall High Schools — in to spend time with them; had visits from sports teams (Army’s hockey team is stopping by for a visit later this month); and has a staff not only adding to their daily HFIS education with homework help, but adding lessons (from teachers) in science, mathematics, computers, art and more. Students in the program also have some 19 electives to participate in, including robotics, indoor and outdoor sports, Spanish, art and more. Children choose four electives for set periods of time.
Since its inception in the Spring of 2022, the Association of Graduates (AOG) has invested $490,000 in the program. They wired the school for expanded internet; pay a staff (including some who are HFIS teachers), security, a nurse, etc.; and they have purchased dozens of Ipads, cameras and other electronic equipment.
AOG spends about $1000 each week on snacks, McDonald said. Through a new partnership, she added, they’re hoping to work with the Food Bank of the Hudson Valley to provide some of those snacks.
Groups of students frequently visit West Point for various events, including work with cadets there, as well as tours and the use of some USMA facilities.
They’ve had Finnegan the therapy dog in on a regular basis; this year they are teamed with the Hudson Highlands Nature Museum for weekly trips and visits from the staff there; they kicked off this fall with a Tropical Bird Assembly; and they spent a recent day learning about the U.S. Constitution, where each child was given a pocket Constitution and Declaration of Independence and an American flag. (They also decorated patriotic cookies on that day.)
New this year too, McDonald said, is a computer software program called IXL which will track the CONNECT participants academic growth and point educators in the best ways to help the students.
In addition to the academic help and fun, one of the best parts of the whole program, Board Member Kristen O’Dell said as McDonald finished her presentation, “is that it is all free to the families that participate”.
McDonald agreed.
“Everything that CONNECT provides, is thanks to the generosity of graduates of West Point,” she said, and noted that the HFIS is the only school in the United States benefiting from a CONNECT program. She explained that the AOG is hoping to set up a million dollar endowment for the program to ensure it will continue, but also noted the board governing the program continues to seek outside grants. She said they have received a Dell grant specifically tailored to getting girls on computers, and a $40,000 National Federal of Recreation grant.
McDonald invited the board members to visit CONNECT and take “a kid led” tour of the program with student ambassadors.
“They are so very proud of this program and are amazing,” she said, “I am so very proud of them.”
She said AOG is very grateful to their partners. To learn more about the program visit www. hffmconnect.org.
