BURLINGTON — The city’s school board is scaling down a redesign of the Burlington High School after the initial plans came in $21 million over budget.
The change in plans will push back the timeline of the project, which was initially slated to begin construction in 2020. Work on the new plan is expected to start June 2021.
Voters approved a $70 million bond to renovate the 55-year-old school building last year. But this week, the Burlington School Board learned that the price tag for the planned design is estimated at $91 million.
To save costs, the district is looking to renovate multiple buildings, rather than demolishing and rebuilding them, Tom Peterson, a Burlington-based consultant working with the district, told the board in a presentation.
Originally the district planned to demolish and reconstruct a building that houses special education classrooms. In a scaled down plan, said structure would be renovated.
Other money-saving options include keeping property services at its current location on Shelburne Road, demolition of one building used for social studies and English and another used for math and science, and more renovation of existing space. Peterson said these options reduce costs by $15 million.
The plans still include a sizable addition for the school, which will house new classroom space.
Peterson described the process as a balancing act between what the public wants, what the students, faculty and staff want and what is required to meet the programming needs of the school.
“In other words, we’re not trying to build a palace,” Peterson said. “If there are any elements that are palace-like, that either stress the budget or take away from programming, we’re going to cut those.”
Still, with the new plans, the project comes in $6 million over budget. Peterson said the district is waiting on the cost estimate for abatement of polychlorinated biphenyl, or PCBs, found in the soil and some buildings on the school’s property.
PCBs are a class of toxic chemicals that, while widely known to exist in electrical equipment, can also be found in paint, caulking and other materials, making it a rising concern with old buildings, Peterson said.
Contamination in the soil under Burlington High School was discovered during the schematic design process. Peterson said soil testing has increased overall costs. He expects to receive an update on PCB abatement Monday.
To close the remaining $6 million gap, more alterations to the plan can be made or the district could seek grants or fundraisers because “going back to the voters is not an option,” Peterson said.
Even with the scaled back plans, the total space for the high school will increase by about 33,000 square feet.
“This is subject to change and we may have to keep whittling away at the new construction piece of that in order to meet the budget,” Peterson said.
School board commissioner Kathy Olwell, East District, asked Peterson if a “wrap around” addition to the building to bring more natural light and increase insulation was still on the table.
Peterson said a new corridor on the south side of the building will provide for more light to the music area, but said the “full envelope wrap” originally planned is out of the budget.
To further reduce costs, Peterson said “there are some architectural features that we think we might have to cut back on.”
Peterson said that no money for construction has been used to date, and the pre-construction costs are currently under budget.
