Burlington School Board approves moving some tech programs to airport

BURLINGTON, Vt. (WCAX) - The plan for Burlington High School’s site is going to be pared back after a decision to move some technical center programs to the airport.

The Burlington School Board agreed in Wednesday’s meeting to take advantage of the $10 million secured by Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vermont, to consolidate tech programs, such as aviation and automotive at the airport.

This will cut down on the school’s Institute Road site by tens of millions of dollars and free up 20,000 square feet of space.

Right now, the district projects moving these programs will get the price of the project to within $15 million of the mayor’s preference of bonding for $150 million.

Burlington School Board Chair Claire Wool said, “We are extremely fortunate of this opportunity but also what it does the unintended consequences of the programmatic and logical move for those high bays. It will reduce our footprint at the 52 Institute Road site which ideally will help us in our fiscal management of going to bond and what that amount will be.”

Now the planning work for schematic designs begins, which will finalize the exact amount the school board needs to bond for. They have also hired a consultant to identify any and all funding resources from state and federal sources to bolster that cost.

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