Community Members Urge Creativity, Collaboration for High School Project

The High School Building Committee held its third community forum on March 27 with the goal of fostering communication and two-way dialogue regarding the plan to rebuild or renovate Burlington High School. The conclusion: The School Building Committee and community members must work together to find the solution that will pass both Town Meeting and a town-wide debt exclusion vote and benefit students, teachers, and staff for generations to come.

The path to that solution is still not obvious after last night's meeting, where Owner's Project Manager Terry Hartford of Dore & Whittier and Chris Blessen of Tappé Architects laid out the work that has been done to this point. In collaboration with the High School Building Committee and other outside experts, the group has studied the constraints on building or renovating, generated a number of options including simple code upgrades, renovation-addition, and new construction, and whittled down those options into the most feasible and palatable (and least disruptive) for the high school community and the community at large.

The process has been complex and continues to be so, as a wetland study performed yesterday puts into question one of the two possible plans and the other still feels too expensive to many in the community.

Of the two options that are currently under consideration, the one known as New Construction 5 (NC5) proposes relocating Varsity Field and building a new school in its place. This would necessitate moving the field to a different location on the high school property. Initially this move was proposed to be where the high school currently stands; the center core of the building would be demolished and the track & field would be built in its place, with current underground space being converted into a parking garage.

In response to feedback from abutters to the high school who were concerned about the light and noise that would be generated from the field, the Committee established an alternative to build the new field where the practice field currently stands, in a corner of the property near the Iona Ganley Conservation Area. The Committee voted at their last meeting to only consider this configuration for option NC5, taking the between-building track & field off the table.

This option has a number of complications, including the fact that the track and field would be separated, as with the existing wetland mapping both would not have fit on the site where the practice field is. However, a new potential snag was hit when wetland flagging completed yesterday suggested the wetlands have grown and the buildable space is smaller than initially anticipated. Neighbors who spoke at the Community Forum opined that even outside the wetland area the ground is still damp and not ideal for a field location.

The second option for a new building, known as Addition-Renovation 8 (AR8), also involves demolishing the central core of the building but would attach a new classroom wing to the current building while maintaining and renovating the gyms and auditorium, as well as the non-high-school space including the central administration, Burlington Early Childhood Center, and Burlington Cable Access Television.

Both construction options would leave students and staff with brand new school and classroom space, and neither would require the use of modulars during construction. They include about 364,000 square feet of space, and preliminary cost estimates center around $340 million. The project will almost certainly require a town-wide debt exclusion vote for funding, and estimates suggest that, as currently conceived, it could increase property taxes by $1,100-$1,200 annually for the average homeowner.

Some residents voiced concerns about the price tag of including non-high-school space in the project. Adding square footage to the project for the programs that are not directly related to the high school increases the cost by tens of millions of dollars, and residents like Select Board member Sarah Cawley and Housing Authority member and former Town Meeting Member Eileen Sickler urge the Committee and the town to get creative about where those programs are housed.

"It would just be good to see a good faith effort by this committee to really try to get costs down while still providing a top notch educational facility," said Cawley. "And maybe one of those options is revisiting the idea of the non high school space." She went on to say that the Committee's efforts to find ways to reduce cost would build goodwill in the community. "If folks see that that effort was made, there will be a sense of trust in this committee that you really did look at all the options and this was the final most viable option and people will feel good about supporting it."

Town Meeting Member Mark Woods asked if the former Meadowbrook School, where Mount Hope is currently located on a lease that will be up in 2030, would be a viable location for these programs, though School Committee Chair Christine Monaco suggested the cost to renovate that building would be just as unpalatable and, furthermore, the disposition of lease renewal hasn't been decided and the town can't count on that space unless a decision is made that either the town or Mount Hope won't be renewing the lease – and that is a conversation for the Select Board.

In the end, says Monaco, referencing what seems like a divide in the community between preferred options, "...we want to do what's best for Burlington but we don't want to pit people against each other. So in order for this to come to fruition and in order for us to have a good chance of passing a debt exclusion, we need some unity. We need to hear from you what you think is the best plan and then whatever it is, we need to all get on the same page and make it happen."

Amanda Lee, a BHS teacher of 10 years, agreed. "The most important thing is that ... we come together to make sure that Burlington has a building that we can be proud of. Arlington did it. Billerica did it. All of our neighboring communities have brand new high schools. It is time for this building to go. It has to go. It is not supporting the students anymore."

The next School Building Committee meeting will be on April 10, and a meeting with the Conservation Commission is also scheduled. Stay connected via the Buzz and the project website.