 Good evening and welcome to town meeting televisions continuing coverage of election 2022 That's November 8th, or maybe you voted already But if you haven't you will be interested to hear about the plans for the new high school here in Burlington and No better to fill us in is Tom Flanagan the superintendent of schools in the city of Burlington. Thanks for joining us Absolutely. Thank you so much for having us. It's great to have you well me well you and we may have Claire soon That's good and I want to remind folks that our number is eight six two three nine six six if you have any questions for Tom about the school the new high school which of course has budgetary implications for all of us who are taxpayers in the city, so let's just start with We had a high school plan we did and then bad things were found Correct you just fill us in on what happened and where we are absolutely. Yes, so we had a plan to renovate The high school the existing high school on Institute Road and that high school Was in need of major updates. We it has really significant accessibility issues problems and It's an inefficient building The HVAC systems are are failing And it's it was clear I think to the community that we needed a new we needed a significant upgrade to that building and so we the citizens of Burlington Voted past a 70 million dollar bond question where the school board asked if the citizens of Burlington would support a new The reconstruction or renovation We called it re-envisioning of the high school so through that process one of the things that you're required to do when you're renovating a school is to look for toxic materials that may exist in that school and so we went through that process in 2018 2019 and 2020 and or maybe it was 2019 2020 this was right before I got here and started testing the air And we learned in the summer of 2020 in Late august it was actually The first day of school and students were back for orientation day. So they actually weren't in the building but Ninth graders were there We we got test results back from the air quality in buildings f and e That was really concerning The level of pcb's which is a toxic chemical That was in the air was of great concern our Consultants who work with us told us that it was the highest levels that they had seen outside of industrial sites So we were very concerned We received the the We received back the additional Results from the rest of the building And we learned from those results that there were pervasive pcb's throughout The air in the building throughout all of the buildings at different levels in all of the buildings But across all of the buildings. They were above the state action levels and those action levels required us to Requires some requires an organization to Learn about where they're coming from so we better understand where they're coming from And the levels were so high that after conversations with the us Environmental protection agency and the department of environmental conservation We had we had a series of meetings with them and and and also our consultants They We I asked them if they if anyone felt like it was safe for us to be in the building And no one felt like it was safe for us to be in the building So we made a decision That was a decision that actually didn't feel like much of a decision to me because it felt like It was very clear that that the toxic chemicals in the building required us forced us to to not return And you may have seen today, but we we just announced today with mayor Weinberger chair Claire wool That we are We will be suing monsanto And have have built a legal team with experience national and local experience in this to address the The pervasive toxic chemicals that were that were in our building and that that still exists there So that's sort of that led us to a decision point Can we can we continue to renovate or do we need a new do we need to do something different? And we decided after a lot of work with the department of environmental conservation the epa Our consultants who do this work nationally Our architect and design team Our school board some outreach to the community hearing people's feedback on on where we where they thought we were and where we should go and Given that we already had a 70 million dollar bond on a building that was failing And we had toxic pervasive chemicals in our in a building That were worse than many than our consultants who do this across the country had seen in outside of industrial sites Um It did not uh the the school board ultimately decided it was not You know and it was not appropriate to continue with that Re-envisioning project and so we moved into the process of identifying A new site for a for a for a to build a new high school So I can get into that. Yeah, you want me to keep rolling. Well, yeah, but I want to just ask you a couple things, which is What's it going to take to dismantle a toxic site like this? There it's going to cost 22 million dollars So the cost of the of the removal of all the toxic chemicals and all the building materials So one of the things that happens with PCBs is the the PCBs were in the caulking around the windows That's where we knew about it first and it it it leeches out Of the of the original kind of location of the toxic chemical and goes in every direction We've learned so they're in the wall Out they've they've seeped into the actual concrete block walls Outside or brick outside of the the windows up to two feet in some places And it's in the soil It's in the glue that sticks Floor tiles to the concrete foundation It's it PCBs are in that substance also. So it's actually inside the foundation of the of the flooring And and it's in the light it's in light ballasts. It was used in light ballast. So it's also in the ceiling so There are PCBs kind of throughout the the building the air and the soil And so you have to go through a careful process of of removing materials and taking down the building And there are organizations that do this there there are have been a number of schools that have had PCB problems None that we know of yet in in vermont that are like ours And also industrial sites where there are experts who who know how to remove These toxic chemicals and the materials that they are in safely And is it expected because there are many schools built around the same time that bhs was built that in other parts of vermont If a study is done this would turn up So the the state of vermont is actually studying this right now We're we're in some ways Not for bhs, but for our for some of our other schools were fortunate that we were Part of a pilot study a number of years ago that looked at PCB levels airborne PCBs In some of our school buildings that were built around the same time Champlain is one of those schools and the levels were not at the Action levels that existed when we first got into this and those are really low that was 15 nanograms per cubic meter Which is a which is a low Action level they call it that that level but at which you have to you have you're you're required to learn more about what what's going on And so we feel we do know that that none of the other schools that were in that pilot Are impacted And have PCBs that rise to the level of any concern And we know that That they will be testing other buildings the state is going to do a testing They're going to test all the buildings that they that are built within a certain range of time When these PCBs were used they're going to they're going to test all of those school buildings across the state And they already have started so there are a couple of school buildings that they found In the first round of testing and they've only tested I I don't remember the exact number, but it's It's around 10 school buildings. I think at this point And there were two I believe that have that have PCB issues So, yeah, it's likely that they are starting with schools that I believe they're starting with schools that they're most concerned about But they will be doing testing across the across the state And so they've developed a protocol to do the testing at the state level and they've also put aside 32 million dollars in the state budget for the process of of Of studying the schools and doing the PCB testing across schools in Vermont So, um, let's get to the question of the mod the design that we have. Hi there Claire. How are you welcome? Thanks for joining us. So the last that I saw there were several designs And you settled on one So tell us how that decision was made. Yeah, so I can walk you through the process a little bit and uh our chair um school board chair Claire wool is here and could help me where I where I miss anything But uh, it was a very intentional process of identifying first a site that would be That's best for the high school. And so we did a lot of engagement around what site would be would be best We heard a lot of feedback from the community and we studied About 16 sites across the city very carefully And what we learned was that the the the best site Was institute road where the current high school is and that was because number one It would be the least complicated and least expensive site for us to build on Even though we have to remove the the old building The other sites had far higher levels of complexity would have been much harder to build on those sites And um, and we own the land so it would it was easier for us to to be able to go there But that was a decision that was made With with a lot of feedback from the community the school board made that decision after careful Deliberation with our with our experts and consultants that are helping us work on this And hearing from from the community. And so that was that was a that was a you know, very intentional And and significant process that we undertook and then we brought an architect and design team in To help us To help us Build the design and so we had five different designs that we chose from and we felt that Design option c it was the best one and that design was Most energy efficient. So a couple of designs were really cool. They were sort of spread out a little bit more One of the designs was right up on the road and and and faced a different faced out onto north av and so But would have required us doing making a new road So there was some complexity to one of the designs the other designs were less energy efficient They were all more expensive. We chose the the option that was least expensive and most energy efficient and so because of the the um Kind of contained site and the way that that was designed that also the roof and the ability for solar There's just a bunch of reasons that this building made made the most sense And so So let's look at it. Sure. Yeah. Yeah, I think you can um, yeah, Kevin you can bring this up if you want So here is the updated. There's an updated site plan There's if you look at the project history actually you can see the original site plan Which includes burlington high school and burlington technical center. So that's the white That's the the the technical center is the is is the carved out part And the new design After some deliberation and some other decisions that I can speak to in a second here Includes a more contained site and also Less square footage for the burlington technical center So one of the things that we we know is that we we want we've all along Every time we've made a decision thought about a great building and that has the least Impact on taxpayers. We want to make sure that this building is responsible In in terms of the tax implications for our community And that it also provides a design that our community Can be proud of and that benefits our community in the long run So we've made we we've always thought about that and one of the Great things that happened during this process as we were really thinking about cost is The burlington technical center Half of the students that go to the burlington technical center are burlington high school or burlington residents And the other half are our students from nine surrounding districts that send their students to us for the technical center It's a wonderful program. We have a bunch of great kind of deeper learning experiences. It's really a special program and And we felt like it was appropriate to have To for for this for half of it because half of our students are a part of btc to be included in this design And at the same time we had an opportunity at the airport we also have an aviation program at the airport and two aviation programs and We our aviation teacher and our btc a burlington technical center director Submitted an application for a grant and they received a 10 million dollar earmark From senator lehi to build at the aviation center So we were able to remove half of the technical center to the airport And we're still working with the airport in the city and beta and for about flight academy and the and the group That's out there on a really exciting opportunity to build out that aviation center to include Two aviation programs advanced manufacturing pre-tech and and perhaps auto as well and to step into the to to you know The modern world right as they're building electric electric engines and Batteries for airplanes. So we're really excited about that opportunity and it also helped with this with the design So you see the overview of the design Up there up on the the slide there that was up a second ago And then you can see the south entrance so the south entrance This shows you how the building is laid out on institute road So institute road is the road that you see in front of the building and you see A a lot of glass around the side that's on north av and that gives an opportunity for the people of burlington to see the the importance the importance of a of an institution of of of learning for our community And and then the building is right there and it's also across from the field So you have really this campus feel with accessibility in terms of the the approach to the building on all sides And a real opens And welcoming environment This north entrance is on the north side of the high school So if you go down institute road and back up around You can see the north entrance and so the building has two sort of Major entrances there are other entrances but two major ones one on the north and one on the south And these two face each other so that there's an entrance way that has light and openness and is In responsive to what we heard from our community about the need for light and for open And communal spaces Here's a classroom design again light our students particularly after being in macy's but really in any Learning environment you want natural light you want to make sure that there's also flexibility one of the design Elements that we've built in that we really heard from students and from faculty is the need for flexibility of space movement ability to move Um and and learn in sort of different seating areas and in different Configuration so that was one of the classrooms and then we um we have a commons or an entry way And this entry way is a part of you saw the north entrance and the south entrance This is in between those and this connects to the gym the auditorium And then the kind of learning spaces out on each side So it's a really important space and it's also a space that provides light provides space for students to Collaborate to eat To be together we heard really clearly from students this idea of light flexible space And spaces for for them to be able to be together in in productive ways and in ways where they're supervision But also in ways where they have some freedom and some flexibility And so we really Believe that this space does that and it also is an entry way for the community into the high school This is not only a building for high school students and their teachers It's a building for our families our community And and we really want it to be an open space and also a safe space And so balancing those two things Um and the the commons is an important part of that So claire was the school board pretty aligned on this design Yes, as far as uh, there was no um There were in the beginning people had their choices But then after more understanding and time spent with the architects we spent numerous visits to the architect firm To ask questions that our constituents had asked us And so in the end everyone was very um excited about this design And so let's talk about the the financial implications. Sure, and this is clearly very exciting It's a big threshold for the community to have a modern high school. It's overdue. I think clearly No matter what we decided as a community when we voted for the 60 million dollar 70 million dollar bond, right? But now um, the voters are being asked for something that's more than double that So maybe you could talk about the fight why it's going to cost so much and what the implications are for The um folks in our community. Yeah The cost is basically uh associated first. We'll start with the demolition of the school It's roughly coming in between 22 and 25 million dollars and we um as uh tenants of the building and our property when we Expose the pcbs. It will be our responsibility to remove those contaminants for obvious reasons, but also um letting the the taxpayers know we have an obligation to Clean the contaminated site as our own property And we're looking for funding for that from the state and in supporting us So the cost of the cleanup the demolition and cleanup And preparing the site for a new building and then the 70 million was for renovation In that iteration having been chair for the last five years We saw costs associated that people might not be familiar with the hVAC system being 18 million dollars for Heating air conditioning ventilation throughout a property as large as this a campus And so those numbers came in You know we we we get an estimate from our own architects But we also get independent estimates We learned that from the 70 million dollar bond as you if people remember it came in at 92 originally and so we had to reduce and and Financially be fiscally responsible on that on those plans and this is the most fiscally responsible Budget that we are presenting and we know there are real world uncertainties And we're aware of that and we've asked that of the architects and the independent estimator as well So there are contingencies Which means there are safeguards in this budget. So when we ask for taxpayers to Borrow up to we are capped at 165. We believe that is a comfortable number That is nothing that superintendent planning and I want to come back to And ask taxpayers that we didn't do our job over the last two years So we are on the mark for this budget that we believe Represents the square footage costs based on independent architects as well giving us guidance Everyone has been very collaborative in this city. I will say as host city to our state university and numerous architect firms There is a sense of wanting all of us to succeed and we You know when we ask students what the slogan for our lawn shot lawn signs should be They came up with you know a bunch of creative ideas and then once students said, you know What about we need a high school just simply stated and so I we understand the costs associated so it is a need It is not a want. We do not have an alternative after macy's. We are very lucky Macy's was available and we we went there the second day. We were closed We are paying macy's over a million dollars a year in rent And we have a finite lease. So we want the downtown area to be developed for tax based purposes and revenue But we are confident in our budget and our bond vote that it would it reflects the building of a new campus and We look forward to sharing more and educating people over the next three weeks that First and foremost, you know my hope in talking to you tonight and your viewers is that Going back to old bhs is not an option So any when we went and met with all our npa's there was still that sentiment Like can't you go back and fix it and we cannot I mean your our announcement today about suing monsanto the creator and manufacturer of Of known chemicals in schools and other buildings throughout the united states We're going to actively go after that as a liability and the harm that it's caused our community So let's look at the numbers So that we can so I think you're basing it on a three hundred and seventy thousand dollar home You've got a couple of views one if you've got income since If you have you get it you're compensated because of your income or if you're not Kevin, why don't you bring this slide up? This is the yearly implications. Maybe there's tax implications when fully bonded that is the slide we have up Or we can look at this one Let's look at this one Because it's up. Yeah, sure. Yeah, I think um, I think it's uh, what what Um Chair Claire wool just said is is really important to For for the viewers to understand number one. We chose the least expensive site We chose the least expensive design the design is in line with high schools And buildings of this square footage of this size in that have been built in new england recently And we and and there really is not another option We don't have a high school beyond high school building for a thousand students beyond 2025 and so it's really critical And we've fully committed we have a memorandum of understanding with the city council and the city To bring all of the funding that we can possibly bring to this project To the project over the next Two weeks to two years when the when the bonding when the tax implications really Start to when when taxpayers would really start to feel those tax implications. So we're really we're we're we're committed to that fully You saw today in the monsanto announcement that we've made that we're we're committed on all fronts We're applying for 17 Different we're eligible we believe for 17 different current grant grants in the current state budget And we believe we're we will be eligible for more funding From from the state and federal government In future years as well. So the implications right now are that with the 165 million dollar Bond that it the tax rate increase on a three hundred and seventy thousand dollar home is 15 is about 15 percent Again, we are not planning to borrow the whole 165 million dollars But our board felt like it was really important that we bond for the full amount of the cost as we know it today Okay, but I don't understand what 15 percent means. So I'd like to see that other slide kevin that talks about tax implications when fully bonded Not that one though the other one I mean, this is monthly tax implications So if you have a three hundred thousand dollar house and your family makes a hundred and ten thousand dollars Then you're looking at about five hundred dollars a year In tax implications. Is that right? That sounds forty seven dollars a month. That's right. Yes. Yes So if I have a 350 thousand dollar house and I my family makes 90 thousand dollars a year It's comparable. I'm looking about 600 dollars a year Right, so people are looking at somewhere between a hundred 200 dollars a year and a thousand dollars a year in additional taxes Yes, correct. Okay. Yeah, and is that number change over time or is that pretty much stay the same or is that increase Depending on the bond that we did There was another slide that said in the first year it would be zero We wouldn't see it in the first year in 224 you would see a percentage increase and so it does fluctuate Yeah, so there we go five and then a nine point five zero So what's that mean two point five and nine point five? Oh, that's what we're estimating like The the tax rate You know the the rate of borrowing of what that impact would be on 70 million would be your taxes would go up 2.85 percent Because it takes us until the year 2026 to be be borrowing The full amount. I understand. Okay. So but I'm I'm basically for my house. Let's just say You know, I'm looking at 800 bucks A year Addition to fund the high school. Yes over how many years? What's the bond period? We we actually won't decide that until until Until next year because when we start the the borrowing We will want to look very carefully and we've been working with the city on this To make sure that we're we're choosing Or we're making a decision on the right Amount of time. So it could be 20. It could be 30. Okay somewhere between 20 and 30. All right So the short story is november 8th. There is a bond Issue is it half the city has to vote or two-thirds of the city majority the majority So it's 51 percent of the people in the community need to support this for this to go And we're we don't have time to talk about what happens if it doesn't go So I'm just gonna thank you both for being with us For all the hard work that has gone into finding creative solutions for our children during a pandemic During a pcb problem and the need for a new high school. So I want to thank you both I hope you get enough recognition in the outside world for the especially you claire because you are a volunteer And tom because you are a great educational leader. So thank you. Thanks for watching I want to invite people to remember to vote on november 8th If you have not already and of course stay tuned right here to 10 meeting tv for continuing coverage of election 2022 And of course on november 8th at 7 30 the results will be here and you can find out if the school ballot item bond has passed Thanks for watching