Demolition of the Former Burlington High School Starts

Demolition began on May 22 Credit: Courtesy of Burlington School District

When Burlington High School’s Institute Road campus opened its doors to students in fall 1964, community members hailed it as a beacon of modernity.

In a Burlington Free Press article, one student described it as a “palace of a building, with its shiny new floors and mazes of corridors.”

Just shy of 60 years later, that palace is coming down.

On Monday, contractor EnviroVantage began demolition of the first of Burlington High School’s five buildings. In 2020 the school district discovered PCBs — toxic chemicals that have been shown to cause a variety of health issues — in building materials throughout the school. Last year, Burlington voters approved a $165 million bond to fund the high school project, which is slated to be finished by the end of 2025. Burlington High School students have been attending classes in a temporary downtown campus, the site of a former Macy’s department store, since March 2021.
Photos and videos shared by the Burlington School District on Monday documented the early stages of the demolition. A gaping hole ripped through the brick façade of Building A — the former site of the school’s main office, cafeteria, gymnasium and auditorium — exposed a tangle of wires and piles of rubble. A claw excavator jerkily dismantled the school’s covered entryway. A blue cannon shot water droplets into the air to suppress dust and prevent any toxins from spreading.

A claw excavator dismantles the high school’s entryway Credit: Courtesy of Burlington School District

In recent months, the district removed solar panels from the roof and cleaned out classrooms. Some items were salvaged, including the gym bleachers and auditorium seats. The bleachers will be installed in the new high school and the seats will go to Hunt Middle School after being reupholstered. Building machinery in good working order is being donated to other Vermont school districts.

EnviroVantage, the New Hampshire-based contractor, was also busy in the lead-up to the demolition: removing asbestos inside the building, creating remediation plans for contaminated building materials and installing a chain-link fence around the campus.

As EnviroVantage works to dismantle Building A — a job which should be done by the end of June — they’ll concurrently clean out and remediate Building B, which once housed the library and administrative offices. Construction of the new building will begin in July, though some demolition will run into October.

The school’s old gymnasium Credit: Courtesy of Burlington School District

Burlington taxpayers may not be on the hook for the full $165 million bond they overwhelmingly approved in November. In April, the school district received word that U.S. Sen. Peter Welch (D-Vt.) had nominated a stormwater treatment project being done as part of the high school rebuild for a $1.2 million federal grant. Though that funding is not a “done deal,” according to Superintendent Tom Flanagan, he’s optimistic it will come through.

Earlier this month, state lawmakers also approved a $16 million appropriation to help Burlington pay for remediation of PCBs at the high school. That money is contingent on the governor’s signature on the state budget.

“We’re still continuing to pursue every source of funding we can to make sure Burlington taxpayers are not the only ones who have to shoulder the burden of this project,” district spokesperson Russ Elek said.

Next year, Elek added, the school district plans to lobby the legislature for funding for Burlington High School’s regional tech center.