Sophia Le, Contributing Photographer

Backstage, where there should be costumes and props, buckets under a leaking ceiling cover the floor. Next door, discarded desks and furniture have taken over the main stage. 

At Wilbur Cross High School, students and faculty have grown accustomed to such conditions, they told the News. 

Last year, more than a dozen parents, students, teachers and staff reported concerns about long-deferred maintenance issues at the East Rock high school in an hour of public comment at a Board of Education meeting. Classrooms were routinely experiencing flooding, and classrooms, locker rooms and common spaces were infested with mold. 

Wilbur Cross and the New Haven Public School Board proposed renovations for the 2025-26 school year to address these issues. Last spring, NHPS planned to bring in an architect and contractors to address flooding problems, rodents and mold, but students and faculty remain concerned by facilities issues. 

“The bathroom stalls are ripped off the hinges, and a lot of the stuff just doesn’t work in general,” Wilbur Cross junior Max DeBiase said. “Some of the sinks don’t work. So when you finish going to the bathroom, you can’t wash your hands.” 

In April 2025, NHPS outlined a $25.1 million, six-part renovation in progress. The renovation includes a new pool in Wilbur Cross and a $548,000 renovation project to install new HVAC equipment.

Overall, students report little progress on these renovations. 

DeBiase told the News that little progress appears to have been made on the pool renovation. 

“They have shown no signs of trying to even renovate it, so I doubt it that they’re gonna fix it up,” he said. 

Heather Baskin, a speech specialist who has been teaching at Wilbur Cross for 17 years,  has similar concerns. She worries that the deteriorating facilities may cause larger, more serious health issues.

“Most of it is just a nuisance. But when you’re talking about mold and things like that, you are talking about people’s health.” Baskin said.

For Baskin, the deteriorated conditions have defined Wilbur Cross for as long as she can remember.

When asked about complaints about facilities at Wilbur Cross, NHPS spokesperson Justin Harmon wrote to the News that renovation and maintenance remain a priority for the district.

“NHPS is addressing facilities needs across the district according to their immediacy and priority, with all available resources” Harmon wrote.

New improvements

NHPS has regularly made plans to renovate the Wilbur Cross facilities, including by promising a new pool, renovated bathrooms and the restoration of common spaces. After years, students are frustrated to see little change.

“My brother graduated in the class of 2023. They promised him and the students of his graduating class that the pool was going to be finished. I actually checked up on the pool last year, and I noticed that it still looked the same,” junior Daylin Calderone said.

Wilbur Cross has completed some renovations. In 2023, Wilbur Cross made a large investment into athletic facilities outside of the main school building and created a new $4.35 million dollar baseball field funded by city, state and federal funds. 

Some students expressed concern that the school budget is directed to renovating the wrong places and should be funding in-school facilities instead.

“For a high school that has so much funding, there’s still these small issues,” DeBiase said.

Some students are less concerned. Sophomore Saniya Atkinson, who recently transferred to Wilbur Cross, says facilities have not been an issue.  

“I haven’t been looking really, and I haven’t seen anything,” Atkinson said.

Administration looking toward next steps

The administration has tried to follow up with renovations, but budget cuts and city funding have interfered. The New Haven Public School system is in the midst of a budget crisis and has not finalized a budget for the current school year.

Currently, NHPS is still working to cover a $3.8 million deficit after New Haven Mayor Justin Elicker did not meet a $23.2 million request by Superintendent Madeline Negrón, instead increasing the city’s contribution to NHPS by $5 million.

“There’s a lot of the things that we were told we’re going to be done, were not done,” Baskin said. “It’s not our administration’s fault that there are not the people to do the things that need to be done. It’s higher than that. Their hands are tied as well.”

Harmon, the NHPS spokesperson, wrote that the district is focused on replacing Wilbur Cross’ roof.

“The roof at Wilbur Cross is a priority; we are accessing resources from the city and the state in order to begin a large-scale replacement project,” he wrote the News.

The Board of Education will meet Monday evening.