Mayor calls Burlington High School situation a crisis

BURLINGTON, Vt. (WCAX) - It’s a situation Burlington Mayor Miro Weinberger is calling a crisis: Tuesday night, the Burlington School Board decided it’s better to build a brand new high school than to try to fix the PCB problem on the school’s North Avenue campus.

Weinberger says he recognizes the project will be expensive but he says taxpayers won’t bear the whole burden.

He credits school officials for making the quick change of course and abandoning the old plan.

But it still leaves many Burlington families in limbo.

“Am I concerned? Absolutely,” said Weinberger, D-Burlington. “This is a crisis for the community that we don’t have a permanent high school at this moment. It’s something I feel in my family and hundreds of Burlington families, thousands of Burlington families either currently have high school kids or are expecting to have high school kids. It’s a troubling situation.”

Weinberger says he met with Burlington Schools Superintendent Tom Flanagan Wednesday morning and he’s confident the district will develop a plan and timetable in the coming weeks.

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