Carmen Schools of Science and Technology Builds for the Future with a $55 Million Home for STEAM Success October 29, 2025

For the better part of 20 years, Carmen Schools of Science and Technology (Carmen) has prepared young people in Milwaukee for life after high school by providing a rigorous, STEAM-based curriculum and hands-on support to students in grades 6-12. This model has paid dividends, helping Carmen expand from a single high school in 2007 to a public charter school network serving 1,900 students across two middle schools and three high schools that is routinely recognized for the quality of education provided to students and the positive outcomes in their lives it’s helping to facilitate. Last year’s graduating class illustrates this point, with 95 percent of seniors in Carmen’s high schools applying for college and 99 percent of applicants accepted to at least one school.

While this would be a significant accomplishment at any school, it’s particularly notable when considering that Carmen’s schools have never had facilities all their own. By relying on leased spaces to operate, the network’s ability to continue expanding the academic and extracurricular offerings available to students has been limited.

That will soon change, however, as Carmen moves forward with the development of a new, 119,750-square-foot high school in Milwaukee that will enable the network to consolidate its two south side high schools nearby into a single, state-of-the-art facility that it owns. Doing so will provide Carmen with more autonomy and the physical infrastructure needed to build on its success propelling students to college or careers as critical thinkers and self-directed learners prepared to succeed in all facets of life.

“Carmen has had an interest in developing a school facility like this for more than a decade, but the pieces never quite came together to make it possible until last year,” says Carmen’s chief financial officer, Michael Bradley. “What we’re building now is the realization of our goal to create a purpose-built school that incorporates input from all of our stakeholders to serve as a pillar for students, families, and the community.”

Realizing this long-term vision for the new high school required Carmen to draw on a broad network of partners able to help the school network plan for the project, acquire the property, assemble the capital stack, and design and build the facility. Securing the capital proved to be particularly challenging given the scale of the project and, after exploring its options in partnership with Monge Capital, Carmen elected to pursue New Markets Tax Credits (NMTC) to facilitate the project. This effort was successful, with Civic Builders, Impact 7, and US Bank providing a $38 million allocation, and US Bank serving as the equity investor.

Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFIs) also played an outsized role in helping to bring Carmen’s vision for the school to fruition, with Low Income Investment Fund (LIIF) and IFF serving as co-lenders for the project to provide loans of $12 million and $7 million, respectively. Nonprofit Finance Fund (NFF) and Partners for the Common Good participated in those loans, and NFF and LIIF also provided credit enhancements that made it more affordable for Carmen to borrow capital. To secure the remaining funding needed for the project, Carmen is executing a capital campaign that has resulted in approximately $6 million in pledges.

“This was a complicated deal to complete, with a lot of parties involved, but everyone involved worked through that because of a singular focus on the mission to do right by students, families, and the community,” says Bradley. “IFF, in particular, helped to lend credibility to the project and to bring the other CDFIs to the table.”

On track to open for the start of the 2026-2027 school year, the new school will serve approximately 1,100 students who will benefit from a high-quality learning environment with a variety of amenities not currently available in Carmen’s leased high school facilities. That includes science and lab spaces, a library, modern gymnasium, a full-service lunchroom, and a soccer field. Audio-visual technologies will also be integrated in all classrooms, contributing to a more modern learning environment.

“We’ve been intentional about creating flexible spaces in the building that will allow students and staff to use the building in ways that work best for them and contribute to a feeling that the school is for them,” says Bradley. “That doesn’t exist in our current facilities, and the possibilities in the new school will be limited only by the imagination of the students and staff.”

Another section of the new building will serve as a dedicated college and career readiness center, reinforcing Carmen’s goal to create pathways for its students to achieve their goals after high school. All students will have easy access to programming – such as college readiness lessons, informational seminars for juniors and seniors, college fairs, college representative visits, and financial aid advising – in a single location. To further ensure students are equipped with the tools needed to succeed after leaving high school, Carmen provides graduates with a dedicated advisor who continues to provide guidance and support as they work toward earning a college degree.

The college and career center will also serve as a hub to help students begin to consider the options available to them for careers after high school or college. Carmen students are provided with internships starting in 10th grade to get hands-on work experience, have access to individualized support with activities like mock interviews, make site visits outside of school to gain exposure to diverse professional environments, and can participate in a STEAM career apprenticeship program in grades 10-12 to earn college credits, build skills, and earn income through paid apprenticeships.

“We put a lot of resources toward assisting students and families with understanding the options available after graduating from Carmen,” says Bradley. “Regardless of the path they choose, whether attending a four-year university or a community college, pursuing a trade, or finding a job that aligns with their goals, we want to be able to help them transition successfully to what comes next. And while we currently provide all of the services that will be available in the new college and career center, putting all of that in one place is going to be a major upgrade.”

In addition to enhancing the student experience and creating a more comfortable environment for teachers and staff, consolidating its two high schools in the new building will enable Carmen to achieve operational efficiencies to further invest in students’ development. With a unified campus, for example, Carmen plans to offer a wider pool of electives and course options, while combining sports teams and activities will enable the school to expand its extracurricular offerings. The new building will also feature an array of environmentally friendly features that will drive down operating costs, including reduced flow fixtures and controls that limit water usage; improved insulation of roofs, walls, and windows to minimize heat loss and gain; energy efficient HVAC units; and LED lighting, among other examples.

While the benefits of the new facility are immense for Carmen, its students, and their families, the project’s positive impact will also extend into the community where the school is located. Carmen is developing the school on a 6.2-acre property that has long been underutilized, and the $55 million project is a transformational investment in the community infrastructure.

Originally home to an industrial facility, the property most recently served as a medical pavilion for a nearby hospital before sitting vacant for several years. As part of the development of the new school, Carmen is remediating longstanding environmental issues with the brownfield site and incorporating green stormwater infrastructure to improve water quality. The new school is also providing an economic boost to the community by creating 120 temporary construction jobs and 90 permanent, full-time jobs, all of which will exceed Milwaukee County’s living wage benchmark of $19.15 per hour.

“There’s a lot of community support for the new school, particularly because it’s transforming a vacant property into something that’s going to contribute to the area,” says Bradley. “This truly is a community-based project, and one that’s defined not just by the promise it affords to the 1,900 students we currently serve, but by its role as a community asset that will serve generations of students and families to come.”