Milford Schools Advance $132 Million in New Construction Funding; Approve Esports Arenas at Both High Schools

The Milford Board of Education adopted its five-year Capital Improvement Plan on May 26, amending the document during the meeting to add roughly $132 million in future school construction funding and new money for air conditioning installation across the district.

The board separately voted 7-1 to approve educational specifications for esports arenas at Jonathan Law and Joseph A. Foran high schools, advancing projects that were funded two years ago toward a state reimbursement application due by June 30.

Both sets of decisions now move into a budget process that runs through the mayor's office, the Board of Finance, and the Board of Aldermen, where actual funding will be decided.

What the Capital Improvement Plan Is

The Capital Improvement Plan, or CIP, is a five-year list of the district's capital needs that the Board of Education submits to the mayor each year, typically in May or early June. Assistant Superintendent of Business and Operations Sean Brennan, who presented the plan, emphasized that adopting the CIP does not by itself commit any funding.

"This approval tonight does not carry any funding associated with it," Brennan told the board. The document lists estimated costs for projects over the coming five years. After the board adopts it, the plan goes to the mayor, who advances projects through Planning and Zoning, the Board of Finance, and finally the Board of Aldermen, where funding is approved. Projects eligible for state reimbursement are then turned over to the Permanent Schools Facilities Building Committee, which selects architects and contractors and oversees the work.

Brennan noted the current state reimbursement rates: 37.86 percent for renovations, alterations, and extensions, and 27.86 percent for new construction.

The West Shore and East Shore Additions

The most significant change made during the meeting was the addition of the West Shore Middle School rebuild to the plan. The board added $3 million for the architectural and engineering design phase in 2028-29 and $126 million for the construction phase in 2029-30 — a total of $129 million.

The addition followed a discussion in which board member Adam Scobie asked how the design timeline for West Shore aligned with the construction window of 2031-2033 outlined in the district's Long Range Facilities Master Plan, the 20-year plan the board adopted earlier in May. Working backward from that construction window, the board determined that design funding needed to appear in the 2028-29 plan year.

The board also added $3 million for East Shore Middle School design in 2030-31. Brennan cautioned that the $126 million West Shore construction figure is a placeholder. "Knowing that that number is just a placeholder and in three years it may be different," he said, referencing the figure drawn from the Long Range Facilities Master Plan consultant's estimates.

Air Conditioning Added to Two More Years

The board also amended the plan to add $1 million each in 2027-28 and 2028-29 for air conditioning installation at unspecified schools, an amendment proposed by Scobie. The plan already included $1 million for air conditioning in 2026-27 and additional amounts in later years.

The amendment came after an extended discussion about the lack of air conditioning in most Milford schools, particularly on upper floors, during early-fall and late-spring heat. Superintendent Anna Cutaia told the board that funding air conditioning was historically "a non-starter" with prior city leadership and that the conversation only opened up after federal COVID-19 relief (ARPA) funds became available, some of which had to be designated for HVAC work.

The district's facilities director, Pat Bradbury, told the board the central obstacle to wider air conditioning is electrical capacity. Installing systems capable of actually cooling spaces — rather than the window units currently in use — requires engineering design to determine whether buildings can support the additional load. "I need a design," Bradbury said, describing the need to assess power capacity and air handling before committing funds. He estimated that air conditioning the second floor of a building such as Jonathan Law or West Shore Middle School would cost more than $1 million per project.

The board directed administration to return at its July meeting with interim, lower-cost options that might help in the near term while larger systems are designed.

The Recurring Infrastructure Needs

The first year of the plan, 2026-27, includes several projects beyond the headline items. Among them: architectural and engineering design for the new JFK and Live Oaks elementary schools; technical education facility improvements at Foran High School intended to create parity with a similar project underway at Jonathan Law; HVAC, ventilation, and boiler work; and the renovation of the Foran High School pool, for which the board approved engineering design last year.

The plan also includes replacement of lighting, rigging, sound, and finishes in the Foran auditorium, which Brennan said dates to the building's original 1973 construction and is at a point where "failure could occur at any time." Other recurring items include parking lot repairs, asbestos abatement, and artificial turf field replacement.

Bradbury described the Foran chiller plant — which controls humidity throughout the building — as a single point of failure. He told the board that if the plant's components fail, replacement parts are custom and not readily available, potentially leaving the school unable to operate for weeks. He said he wants the district to build in redundancy so the building can continue functioning during a breakdown.

The Esports Arena Votes

In two separate 7-1 votes, the board approved educational specifications for esports arenas at Jonathan Law and Joseph A. Foran high schools. Board member Mary Claire Edmonds cast the lone no vote on each.

The funding for the arenas was secured approximately two years ago, in the 2024-25 cycle, and the votes on May 26 were to approve the educational specifications and authorize the superintendent to apply for state reimbursement of eligible costs by the June 30 deadline. Both projects have already moved through the capital improvement process and are in the hands of the Permanent Schools Facilities Building Committee.

Administrators described the spaces as primarily instructional. According to the educational specifications read into the record, the spaces are "engineered to host a rotation of core and elective courses that feed directly into career and technical education and specialized career pathways, including digital media broadcasting, computer-aided design, and engineering design," and convert to esports use after school. Officials said the spaces are designed for flexibility, with movable rather than fixed seating, and multiple entrances so breakout rooms can be used for separate classes during the school day.

Officials said the district's esports program had about 30 student-athletes across the two schools in its first year and placed among the top four in the state. They described esports as a CIAC-sanctioned sport and said per-student costs were comparable to sports such as wrestling and soccer, with costs expected to decline after initial startup expenses.

Cutaia spoke at length in support of the projects, describing students "who lived on the fringe of life at school" finding a sense of belonging through esports, and arguing that esports athletes should receive facilities and respect comparable to those given to traditional sports. She and other officials pointed to recent investments in athletic facilities, including new turf fields and a baseball field at Jonathan Law, as comparable commitments.

The Dissent and the Union's Concern

Edmonds, in explaining her no votes, said she supported modern instructional spaces and understood the benefits of esports but did not see the project "representing a critical need as much as it potentially could," particularly after participating in the months-long Long Range Facilities Master Plan process that documented extensive district needs.

Earlier in the discussion, Edmonds had questioned whether the educational specifications — which reference spectator viewing areas, broadcasting infrastructure, studio-grade microphones, and specialized lighting — adequately reflected the daytime instructional use that officials emphasized would account for the majority of the space's use.

During public comment, Alan Stern, vice president of the Milford Education Association, the teachers' union, raised a related concern. Stern said that while he had not seen the architectural plans, it was his understanding that the Foran arena would consume multiple existing classrooms, including specialized instructional space such as a digital media room with a darkroom that he described as "very difficult to replicate elsewhere in the building." He said the specifications did not address the impact on those existing instructional spaces.

A Warning on Cost Estimates

Resident Babs Donnelly, of 52 Meadowside, urged the board to be more transparent about how much the overall facilities plan will ultimately cost. She said the Pumpkin Delight project came in roughly 35 percent over its initial estimate and warned that if similar escalation applied to the $1.5 billion facilities plan, the real cost could approach $2 billion.

"If you want to make sure that your priorities are met, you have to make sure that you're making a good-faith effort to represent the costs," Donnelly said.

Board members responded that the Long Range Facilities Master Plan includes a 3.5 percent compounded annual escalation factor, though it was acknowledged during the meeting that the figure is modest. Brennan and other officials described the difficulty of estimating costs for projects years in advance, citing examples including a playground that rose from $100,000 to $130,000 within months and an acoustic system that increased from under $10,000 to $25,000.

What Happens Next

The CIP now goes to the mayor's office, which will advance projects through Planning and Zoning, the Board of Finance, and the Board of Aldermen. Officials said funding for the 2026-27 projects would not be received until roughly a year from now, and that the design and reimbursement process for major projects extends over multiple years.

Brennan noted that the upcoming facilities work represents the largest capital request the Board of Education has made in many years, and that the administration expects to have detailed conversations with the other city boards that will weigh in on funding. As multiple officials noted during the meeting, Milford has not built a new school since 1973.

The Board of Education's next regular meeting is scheduled for the coming weeks, with a July meeting expected to include the requested report on interim air conditioning options.