Milford School Committee Elects Akagini Chair, Hears MSBA Reimbursement Warning

MILFORD — April 16, 2026 — Milford School Committee reorganizes under new chair and hears sobering breakdown of the state school-building reimbursement formula. The committee unanimously elected Michael Akagini as chair and Brendan Rickert as vice chair at its April 16 annual reorganizational meeting, with the superintendent reappointed as committee secretary. Owner's Project Manager James presented a detailed analysis using Agawam High School as a case study, showing that Milford's assigned Massachusetts School Building Authority reimbursement rate of roughly 73 percent applies only to eligible costs — not the full project budget — and that ineligible items including legal services, site work, and a per-square-foot construction cost cap of $605 (against a current market rate of roughly $945 per square foot) can reduce a district's effective net reimbursement dramatically. In Agawam's case, $76 million in exclusions on a $229 million project compressed a 65 percent assigned rate to roughly 43 percent net. The committee also accepted $1,000 from Youth Climate Solutions and $493 from the Association of Teachers and Mathematics, and heard that the district has selected Tewksbury-based O'Connor Studios as its district-wide photography partner beginning with graduation in 2026-27.