In what he called an “extremely aggressive” timeline, Burlington’s superintendent told school board members Tuesday night that he wants a new high school built within four years.
“Most people are telling me that four years may not be possible,” superintendent Tom Flanagan said. “But if we were to hit every milestone on our project plan, which we’re currently building out, then we could get there in four years.”
Flanagan laid out a roadmap at Tuesday’s meeting showing how the district plans to go about building a new high school and technical center in four phases.
Last month, the school board decided to forgo any attempts at saving the old high school building because it was deemed too contaminated with carcinogenic chemicals. Burlington High School was shuttered last fall after PCB chemicals were found at dangerously high levels throughout the grounds. Students have since moved into a converted Macy’s department store downtown.
Flanagan’s four-phase plan includes finding new sites to build on; narrowing down the sites to two or three options; buying the land and designing the school; and, finally, building it.
He told board members that the district has hired consulting firm White and Burke Real Estate Advisors to identify available sites around the city that could house a high school that would accommodate around 1,000 students as well as a technical center. Flanagan said he expects the firm to identify between five and 10 sites, all of which would be considered by the school board and then narrowed to two or three finalists.
Flanagan said there would not be many opportunities for community input because the district is on a tight timeline. The lease for the old Macy’s building in which students are currently learning lasts only for three and a half years, and the district is trying to limit the number of temporary moves before a new high school can be built.
“We’re moving as quickly as we can because the project needs to get done as soon as possible,” Flanagan said. “We want to balance engagement and making sure we’re making the right decisions.”
The converted Macy’s department store is owned by Don Sinex, one of the developers behind the long-stalled City Place downtown development project. The old Macy’s building is supposed to be demolished to make way for the City Place project, which developers are attempting to move forward but which has been hit recently with new legal challenges.
Flanagan said the Institute Road land on which the old high school is located isn’t off the table as a potential site for the new structure. While the PCB chemicals seeped into the soil, they didn’t contaminate drinking water or cause more extensive damage. On this parcel of land, the superintendent said, the district could build in front of the old school or even on some of the sports fields.
But because the old contaminated building will require special attention when being demolished and removed due to the presence of the chemicals, Flanagan said, building on the site could make the four-year timeline untenable.
“The work we would need to do to demolish that, I think, will push our timing out too far to be able to build and get back into a building in a reasonable amount of time,” Flanagan said.
There are still no public projections on how much the new high school could cost. The district also must still decide how it would finance the project.
Only $4 million was used from the $70 million bond that was approved by voters in 2018 to renovate the old high school building. The district borrowed another $20 million intended to remediate the PCB chemicals. But because that plan was scrapped, the $20 million cannot be used toward a new build. Now, the district has $46 million left from the original bond.
The district could use the remaining money to construct the replacement building, Flanagan said, or start over with a new bond. He said the latter option is more likely. A bonding request could reach voters as soon as November, he said, or perhaps next March.
But the district will also be looking for state and federal funding opportunities — as well as philanthropy — to fund Burlington’s new high school.
The school board plans to discuss alternative sites for a high school in more detail at its June 15 meeting. Member Monika Ivancic asked Tuesday whether the district could sell the land the old high school currently occupies to fund the creation of a new one.
“The way real estate is going nowadays, that would make a lot of money that could potentially pay for a high school,” she said.
Flanagan responded: “Lots to consider.”
