The Burlington, Vermont School District superintendent says the district has saved $6 million dollars on the cost of building a brand new high school.
The Burlington High School and Technical Center was permanently closed in September 2020 after the discovery that PCB contamination levels were reportedly higher than those recommended by the EPA and the state Health Department during air quality tests conducted before planned renovations of the original buildings.
Since March 2021, students have been attending classes in a vacant Macy’s department store in downtown Burlington. Three years ago, Burlington voters approved a $165 million bond and in March 2023 a groundbreaking for the new school was held. Construction is on-going.
During this week’s school board meeting Superintendent Tom Flanagan reported that the district has been able to save $6 million on construction costs.
“We’ve borrowed $159 million up to this point. The full ask was for $165 million. But we promised from the beginning that we would do everything in our power not to borrow the full $165 million. The project’s not done yet but we are confident that we won’t need to borrow that final $6 million.”
Flanagan described how the district has been able to save millions on the project.
“It comes from careful fiscal management of the bond, careful fiscal management of the project itself, and of overall district finances which helped us get to this point. Specifically, when we borrow the money, we put it into savings until we use it and when we do that we earn interest on the borrowing which helps us to leverage what we’ve borrowed to support the project. We also have a few grants that have helped with the project. You’ve directed us to use some of our annual surplus to put towards this project so that also helps with this.”
Superintendent Flanagan told the board Tuesday that borrowing less will mean slightly lower taxes.
“It’s not going to have a huge impact on any individual person’s taxes necessarily, we don’t think. But it is a big piece of what we promised from the beginning and we’re happy to be able to be moving toward a building that is...it’s not under budget because the cost if the project is still $203.8 million approximately and still on time to open next fall. And it’s just great to see the project coming along.”
North District Board Member Kendra Sowers praised district officials for holding the line on project finances.
“That’s wonderful news. Anyone who’s done any renovations right now knows it’s crazy to do anything. Everything’s expensive. I’ve had a lot of constituents ask if we’re going to be on budget, on time, so this is awesome news. And I’ve had a lot of people ask when it’s going to be open to the public for touring, so I just thought I would ask that question.”
“Yeah. So open to the public for touring probably won’t be until summertime," Flanagan replied. "We will be planning some big activities for the community unveiling of the building.”
