Burlington High School Feasibility Study is Underway

The Burlington High School Building Committee heard from Tappé Architects, the design group that will be performing the feasibility study for the high school. This group will look at the different options for what is possible with the high school, whether that means building a new high school, renovating the current one, or some combination of the two.

Tappé is very much in the discovery stage of this process, which entails gathering all the information possible about the existing conditions and future needs. According to the team, traffic engineers have studied the traffic patterns and surveyors have looked at the land and measured the interior of the school to create a digital model of the building for use during the planning process. During break, a team of engineers was planned to descend upon the building to review the technology and building systems. The group is also looking into alternate spaces that might reasonably house a high school, and while there is a shortage of town-owned real estate appropriate for this purpose, time will tell how creative they get during these investigations.

Another part of the Burlington High School feasibility study will be the educational space summary, which is a square footage estimate based on the enrollment projections as well as the space needs for so-called educational and non-educational programming. At the latest meeting, the Committee voted to assume an enrollment of 1,100. This is more than the current enrollment of around 950 and the near future projections of 970, and was created to give the district some wiggle room and account for potential additional housing in Burlington over the next several years. (The number of students that new housing would add, however, is a point of contention.)

Smaller working groups will also be established soon, so that some of the work can be compartmentalized and then shared with the larger group.

This educational visioning process will be underway for the next few months, and by the end of the school year the community can expect to hear some preliminary ideas from the architects around the end of the school year.