At a recent meeting, Milford School District Board of Education approved the issuance of a Certificate of Necessity to the Delaware State Board of Education for renovations needed at Milford High School and the elementary schools. This is a required step should the district decide to move forward with capital improvements that may include referendum in the future.
“We were originally told by the Department of Education that there is not funding available for major cap projects in FY28,” CFO Tammy Smith said. “We’ve been working with them for a couple of months now on what this process looks like so that districts aren’t spending a lot of resources preparing certificates of necessity that are not going to get approved.”
According to Smith, the district was notified that the state was requiring a new submission rather than allowing districts to simply resubmit previous certificates. Smith pointed out that costs have increased due to the dollar per square foot costs increasing under the state formula which means the project will cost about five percent more than if it had been approved the previous year. The estimated cost for the renovations is $18,620,064.
Board member Dr. Sara Hale, who formerly served as the CFO for Milford School District, pointed out that this was the fourth year the district had applied for a certificate of necessity for the same projects.
“It is incredibly frustrating that we’re now submitting for a fourth year but any funding we have seen in school construction this year was once again in New Castle County,” Hale said. “I appreciate the work that goes into these certificates of necessity, and I fully support the needs we have at our high school, but again, it is just very frustrating with the state and their lack of funding for Sussex County and districts in need like ours.”
The board approved the certificate of necessity by a vote of four to zero as several board members were absent.
