For years, high school students in Burlington have been displaced because of dangerous chemical contamination in old buildings. This school year students finally have a new permanent home.
In 2020 the Burlington School District conducted air quality tests as part of a planned renovation of the high school. The results found high levels of PCB contamination, and the buildings, which originally opened in 1964, were closed and eventually demolished. In 2021 a former Macy’s department store in the downtown was repurposed as a temporary high school.
This semester students leave downtown and will attend classes in the brand-new quarter-million-square-foot school.
“I’m excited. It’s definitely going to be harder because it’s a new building and I’m going to have to learn all of the new spaces. But I’m excited to be here instead of the Macy’s.”
An incoming sophomore, Sophie George spent her freshman year attending classes in the former downtown department store. She and her mother, Esther George, liked what they saw after touring the new building.
“It’s amazing," Esther George says. "They’ve done an incredible job.”
“It’s enormous compared to the Macy’s and so well made and we have so much more space to actually like do school compared to the Macy’s," Sophie George notes. "And it’ll probably help to have better learning spaces and more access to things that we didn’t have the ability to do in the Macy’s.”
Sitting on the footprint of the former high school, the new building features open and flexible spaces in and outside of classrooms, an interior courtyard, geothermal heating and cutting-edge technology. Natural light imbues every classroom and an upstairs atrium leads to a balcony overlooking the athletic field.
Standing there, Superintendent Tom Flanagan said he was excited and relieved following a six-year journey that has culminated in the opening of the new high school.
“And I’m just super-psyched that we’re in this building and it’s beautiful and there’s tons of energy and people are happy and really just feeling so excited about what will come from the space. And then a little bit of relief too. You know it’s been a long journey and we’re here!”
Abby Paige is the parent of an entering ninth grader. She became emotional as she walked through the new school.
“I don’t know why I’m crying. It’s a little overwhelming. It’s just a very different vision of what a school can be to have it be a place where people really want to spend time, because it’s beautiful. And it has all these amenities where things have really been thought about in terms of like how do we want people to feel when they’re going to school. I think it really shows that we’re as a community investing in our kids and investing in their futures and our own futures by supporting our kid’s education. And it just shows where our priorities are in a really beautiful way.”
In 2022, Burlington voters approved a $165 million bond to help fund the total $190 million cost.
Nadia DuBose was checking out the new school with her daughter Nylah. DuBose says the building is worth the taxpayers’ investment.
“I like the small classrooms and stuff like that," Nylah DuBose says.
“It’s a nice mix of a lot of space but also of pockets," observes Nadia DuBose. "So like even just sitting in a courtyard or sitting near a window somewhere. It’s important that we offer our kids in Burlington the same space for opportunities for growth or enhancement of their own minds. We need this for our students to be successful in the world and so there’s no question that it’s the right choice to build this school.”
On Wednesday, juniors and seniors and on Thursday freshmen and sophomores will arrive for half day orientations to learn the layout of the building. The first full day of school is on Friday.
