The Burlington School Board voted unanimously on Tuesday to build a new high school and technical center on its New North End campus, dashing the prospect of a permanent downtown school.

Superintendent Tom Flanagan recommended the site following a six-month process led by real estate consultants White + Burke. The firm initially identified 16 possible locations, then whittled it down to three: two sites on the Institute Road campus in the New North End, and the downtown Gateway Block on Main Street.
But Flanagan said that site had a number of challenges. It was too small to accommodate all high school and tech center programs. And there were unknown development challenges that could be expensive and time-consuming. For one, there's an old, brick-and-cobblestone sewer and stormwater line that runs under the site that crews would have needed to relocate and rebuild before the new school went up.

In a discussion before the vote, school commissioner Polly Vanderputten said she had some "paranoia" about the low threshold set by the state for PCB levels, and said she wanted to ensure that there was no contamination on the Institute Road North site.

Flanagan and property services director Marty Spaulding said that testing has shown that there are not elevated levels of  PCBs in the soil where the new high school would be built.
Spaulding said it would take "a couple of years" to demolish the old building. The district wants to begin constructing the new building before that demolition project is complete.

Following the vote, board chair Clare Wool read a statement on behalf of the entire board.

"It is our obligation as a school board to advocate for our schools and adhere to sound fiscal stewardship," the statement said. "We believe that not having a permanent high school and technical center puts our city in a state of emergency and needs to be a top priority when making financial decisions."

Wool said the school board plans to put a bond for the new high school on the ballot in November 2022.