The South Burlington School Board is moving forward with plans to build a new combined high school and middle school paired with an indoor athletic facility — a project that comes with a $209 million price tag.
After weighing eight options over the last two years, board members unanimously agreed on a plan to build a new larger school the students will share and demolish South Burlington High School and Frederick H. Tuttle Middle School.
School Board Clerk Bridget Burkhardt said the proposal is the best option to address outdated infrastructure, lack of federal accessibility requirements and overcrowded classrooms while improving the curriculum mission of the district.
The current plan calls for a roughly 405,000-square-foot combined school — an overall increase of about 100,000 square feet. A separate recreation center for school sports with an indoor 200 meter competition track will also be built.
The new buildings are planned to be erected where the schools’ baseball and football fields are currently located.
The district is working with the Dore and Whittier architectural firm on the project. If all goes to plan, construction is expected to begin in the summer of 2021, with the new building being complete by 2024. Once all the students are moved into the new building, SBHS and Tuttle Middle School will be demolished and new sports fields and parking lots will take their place.
The entire project is expected to be complete by 2025. The district is seeking a bond vote on the March 2020 ballot to fund the project.
During the construction phase, a fence will separate the current buildings from the new site. Burkhardt said this will give the contractors plenty of space to work with, increase the pace of the project and limit its effect on learning.
Both schools were built in the 1960s, when Burkhardt said the education model was much different.
“The challenge we’re having across both buildings is a lack of collaboration spaces for students,” Burkhardt said.
Today, the district employs a more team-based learning model, where students often work together on projects and assignments. With the lack of space, and increased enrollment, Burkhardt said she will often see students sitting on the hallway floors to work on assignments.
Not only does this cause discomfort for students, but with the way classrooms are designed, it prevents teachers from being able to see the students.
Subsequent additions and renovations have tried to ease the overcrowding, but Burkhardt said it isn’t enough, as scheduling challenges plague the school. The cafeterias can’t hold all students, nor is there enough space in the gyms for practices and lessons.
“Given the number of varsity basketball and volleyball teams that we have, students are often practicing quite late into the evening,” Burkhardt said, adding some students don’t return home until as late as 10 p.m.
Other options considered by the board called for renovating the schools, partial demolition or a hybrid, but Burkhardt said, logistically, those plans would be very challenging and disruptive because of the current architecture.
Load-bearing walls and limited ceiling space would make it hard to upgrade necessary utilities like climate control and fire prevention systems. Simply renovating the schools would detract from the goal of increasing continuity between programs to enhance the educational mission.
The district has already held a number of meetings to hear public comment. Burkhardt said the response has been overwhelmingly positive, but some residents are worried about the price. The most positive comments have come from parents of current elementary students, who Burkhardt said are very excited about sending their children to the new school.
The board is planning to send out final cost estimates by Thanksgiving and get them back sometime in December. Burkhardt expects the estimates to come back “right around” $209 million.
“We know this is an investment but we believe it’s the right investment to ask the community to support at this time,” Burkhardt said. “We’re talking about a building that will support learning in South Burlington for 50 to 75 years.”
