Rendering of the entryway to the new Milford middle school.
The new Milford middle school, a key component of Milford School District’s strategic plan to accommodate rapid enrollment growth, will soon be getting a formal name.
The school, under construction at 612 Lakeview Avenue in Milford, is expected to open in fall 2025.
The district is growing by roughly 150 students a year, and over a few years, that translates to the population of a normal elementary school, said board member Matt Bucher.
“That puts us in a position where we’re going to have to make some decisions rather quickly,” Bucher said.
The nine-person naming committee took the following components into consideration when coming up with names: long-term grade configurations long-term, community and history and already established commemorative and historical items.
In the district’s board of education meeting Monday night, Sara Hale, district chief operating officer, presented the four finalists:
Lakeview Avenue Intermediate School
Lakeview Intermediate School on the Milford Eleven Campus
Milford Schelhouse School (M.S.S.)
Marvin P. Schelhouse School
Marvin Schelhouse was a longtime Milford resident who died in September 2022. He graduated from Milford High School in 1955 and then joined the Marine Corps in 1956, serving for 21 years.
Marvin Schelhouse
After retiring from the Marine Corps, he moved with his family back to Milford and began working for the state Department of Labor for over 20 years.
He was also a member of the Milford School District Board of Education for more than 30 years, serving as president multiple times.
Hale said the names were a combination of the top choices from the committee as well as names that were strongly advocated for by the community.
“We understand that it is the ultimate decision of the board,” she said, “so if the board would like us to reconvene or to take feedback, we can certainly do so but these are the names that we are presenting.”
MILFORD MIDDLE PROJECT TIMELINE.
The board wanted clarification on the grades the school would serve and if having the word “intermediate” in the name is appropriate.
“Technically the grades five and six are considered an intermediate school,” Hale said. “We are cautious to include intermediate or early childhood or some sort of title designating those grade-spans, not knowing over the next few years of our district how that will look.”
The board emphasized the need for the name to be timeless and able to last the length of the building regardless of if the district restructures what grades attend.
It is unclear when the board needs to vote on the name.
Grade reconfiguration
The district is reshuffling which grades will go into each school starting in the 2025-2026 school year, which is the year the new middle school opens.
Currently, the district is structured pre-K and kindergarten together, grades one through five together, grades six through eight together and grades nine through twelve together.
When the new middle school opens, the district will shift to kindergarten through grade four at its four elementary schools (Morris Early Childhood Center, now serving pre-K and kindergarten, will become the fourth elementary school), grades five and six at the new middle school, grades seven and eight at Milford Central Academy, and grades nine through 12 at Milford High School.
District administration pointed out that the names were presented as considerations for the board, but ultimately, the board has final decision and votes on a name of their choice, so it won’t necessarily be one of the four picked by the naming committee.
Raised in Doylestown, Pennsylvania, Jarek earned a B.A. in journalism and a B.A. in political science from Temple University in 2021. After running CNN’s Michael Smerconish’s YouTube channel, Jarek became a reporter for the Bucks County Herald before joining Delaware LIVE News.
