MILTON — The School District of Milton, in relocating its longtime maintenance shed, would open the door for that vacated space to be renovated as a barn for animal science education.
A new 9,000-square-foot maintenance shed is envisioned to be constructed on the site of a former ice rink on the northeast corner of Central Park, along Municipal Drive near Hilltop Drive.
Ground wouldn’t be broken in the fall of 2026 at the earlier, with the construction funded through the district’s long-term capital project fund.
Renovation of the vacated maintenance shed as an animal sciences education barn, would meanwhile be entirely paid for by Milton FFA Alumni fundraising.
Milton High School Principal Jeremy Bilhorn told the school board in April that the new barn would house animals including chickens and steers.
Agriculture science classes currently have access to make-shift animal pens set up in the high school parking lot for guest speakers and to house animals brought in for short-term stretches.
The new barn would offer expanded opportunities for veterinary science and animal science courses, with animals belonging to community members housed there during the school year. There would also be opportunities for partnerships, including with 4-H.
The current 5,000-square-foot maintenance building is directly to the west of the high school next to the greenhouse and the FFA classroom. It was built in 1979.
When it was built, the school district had 315,000 square feet of buildings to maintain. As of 2025, its has 721,000 square feet to maintain.
A recent memo from Buildings and Grounds Director Stephen Schantz to Superintendent Rich Dahman highlighted operational challenges with the current maintenance building.
Delivery trucks struggle with traffic on High Street, Schantz wrote. There is also limited storage capacity, Schantz wrote, which forces equipment and materials to be stored outside the building.
A new district maintenance building has been eyed in capital project planning but other projects have been prioritized ahead of it. And maintenance operations keep changing, Schantz wrote, with more done in-house than a decade ago, which requires more space.
“When we were approached by the FFA Alumni, it really seemed like an ideal opportunity with a potential renovation of that current building to be an FFA Alumni large animal facility and then to relocate and build what we need to service the district well into the future,” he said.
School board member John Dummer asked about land north of the district’s baseball diamond after discussions in the past about the maintenance facility being built there.
“This is now deemed a better option. The space directly to the north of the baseball diamond was definitely limited based on the grade and drop-off to Municipal Drive, and it really limited our access too,” Dummer said, to both Hilltop Drive and Municipal Drive.
The school board’s Finance Committee will review the proposed plan to determine next steps at a future meeting.
Board member Joe Martin said he would have liked to see a maintenance facility built “two or three years ago because of the need for it, and advocated for the district to move quickly on it.”
He said whether new maintenance space is built shouldn’t be “based on what the next use of what your current building is,” but rather should be ”based on what you and your staff are able to do for this district.”
“These folks do an incredible job for us — the maintenance, the upkeep, the daily tasks, etc. I think it’s obligatory on us to provide them with the spaces to do that in the most efficient way possible,” Martin said.
“Certainly, the current facilities, while they make it work, are somewhat limited. I think this is a project, that as a district and particularly as a board, to recognize, not only the hard work and effort that Steven and his group do but what it does for our district.”
Being able to work better and more efficiently “benefits everybody, the students and the staff — all of us,” he said.
