New offering is linked to the pilot Yellow School Bus project, allowing bus-riding students access to a designated ‘Play Zone’ before and after school.
Over the past several months, as the multi-agency effort to create a two-year pilot Yellow Bus Pass program took shape – and as the Mill Valley Community Center was pegged as one of the primary bus stops – Mill Valley Recreation Director Jenny Rogers and her team decided to seize a unique opportunity: satisfy the longstanding demand from parents to expand the Center’s before- and after-school care programs.

They’ve done just that, creating the Center of Play program, which directly links with the new Yellow School Bus program and provides before and after-school care for students at Mill Valley schools. The program replaces and significantly expands upon the Mill Valley Recreation’s Supervised Play program at various local public schools.

“The bus program definitely provided the initial impetus to create this new venture,” Mill Valley Recreation Director Jenny Rogers says. “It provides us a great opportunity to have children to take advantage of all that we have here at the Center, including things like our pool and our big commercial kitchen, all while allowing parents to pick up their kids later in the day than they could with Supervised Play.”

Rogers has hired Stanford grad Kelsey Bechelli to oversee the program. She’ll be working with high school students and users of the Center’s Teen Zone to oversee the program’s activities, which include recreational games, arts & crafts, outdoor play and homework time (not tutoring), as well as the opportunity to participate in any Mill Valley Recreation program onsite at the Center, including swim lessons and enrichment classes. Mill Valley Recreation will continue to offer their widely renowned Enrichment Programs – after-school classes on everything from including art and pottery to tae kwon do and hip-hop dance – on local school campuses.

Rogers says she’s already seen the program’s impact just a few days after registration opened. “We’ve already reached our minimum enrollment number, so we’re very excited,” she says. 

The 411: The Center of Play launches Monday,. August 29. MORE INFO on pricing, the bus program etc. can be found hereQuestions? Please contact the Recreation Department at 415.383.1370


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