Burlington High School and Tech Center Grand Opening and Block Party

She's like, I'm in the back. She's so glamorous, isn't it? >> Just some cuts and paper, little box like number three. So, you got >> Yeah. Well, Brian said it's a very short I don't know. She's standing up. There she is. Nice to see some friends. Hello everybody. Yeah, I mean I think they're always doing as possible. She's the manager. >> Yeah. >> They did both. They still feel across the road. 156. County. Please Heat. What a bless. 1 2 3 You have problem. Just so you know, at one point we're going to call students coming up and they're going to have to squeeze their >> paparazzi. Are you ready? We don't have this tiny Thank you. Follow Oh, okay. Heat. Heat. Hallelujah. All right. Is this working for us? >> I don't hear anything. >> Grand opening. You all ready? We may need one more song. >> That was a cool song though. No, >> I didn't know that. Watch my paper. Yeah. >> Yeah. stupid. >> Yes. All right. How's this? >> Okay. >> Well, we thought we'd never get to this point and then the microphone didn't work and it really felt like we'd never get to this point. Uh, good morning everyone. It is so absolutely wonderful to see you all out here today to get a first view, although we've had tours all summer of the building all together as a community. I'm Tom Flanigan. I'm the superintendent of Burlington Schools and had the honor and privilege of working with you uh each and every day in this beautiful community. A little over 5 years ago, I stood in front of many of you as we marveled at how our community came together to transform an abandoned Macy's into a school. Today, I stand here overwhelmed with gratitude for the building behind me and the work it has taken to get us to this point. Isn't that great? >> This summer, I've spent a lot of time thinking about collective responsibility and what it takes to make big changes happen. On Thursday, I wrote a welcome back letter to our staff highlighting that we are all important and that no one individual can do everything. To make big impactful changes, we have to work together as a team. That idea is on full display today. Countless individuals came together as a team working toward the collective goal to deliver the high school and technical center that our city deserves. >> Starting from the beginning, I want to thank the Burlington Board of School Commissioners for their courage in advocating for this project. They're they're all around us right now. Their work in Melia to fight for equitable budgeting for school and for PCB reimbursement. That was $16 million of PCB reimbursement. And for their confidence and faith in the district's leadership team to get this project done. Specifically, I want to thank our board chair, Claire Wool. for her unwavering support of this project. Many of you will remember her work coordinating volunteers and lawn signs asking for the yes vote nearly six years ago. >> They were everywhere. But even now, Chair Wool has decided near nearly have has dedicated nearly every evening and weekend to running public tours. so thousands and thousands of our community members could see the impact of their support and their tax dollars. Please join me in thanking our board chair, Claire Wall, and our full school board, past and present, for everything they did to make this happen. Local partners were critical in this project throughout. White and Burke real estate helped assure the community that this was the right spot for our new campus and Envirro Vantage tore down the old one. Thank you both for kicking off the process. >> While the building was coming down, Freeman French Freeman, Colin Lindberg Associates, and Dr. Architects were designing. If you're on one of those teams, can you please raise your hands or wave your hands? I don't know. We're a big group. >> These teams didn't just design the building of their dreams. They took deliberate time to connect with students, staff, disability groups, gender advocates, families, and community partners. And they took that feedback and made changes in real time. The result is what you see behind me. A building designed for 21st century education that encourages deep learning, a connection to the outdoors, accessibility, safety, and inclusion. It is truly remarkable what Freeman French Freeman, Colin Lindberg Associates, and DRA Architects have achieved here. Please join me in thanking this team. Designing the building is one thing, but making it come to life is a whole another story. As our construction manager, White and Turner had the nearly impossible task of coordinating more than 75 different subcontractors from across the country while keeping an eye on the budget, juggling all the changes, and helping us meet our markers to be a lead certified building, lead gold certified building. Through all this, they even had to put up with our communication specialists coming into onto the construction site to take selfie videos all the time. >> He get he gets a shout out later. If if you're on the wedding and Turner team, can you please raise your hands? Where's our Wy Turner partners? >> Building this school was an absolute triumph for Whiting Turner and the team with Dylan Loer leading on the ground throughout. It came together in such a good way. I'm amazed with their work and truly grateful for their partnership in this flagship project. Please join me in giving them a huge round of applause. Right, Jeremy? On my team are our district team, Nathan Lavy, Lyall Smith, Russ Ell Victor Prusac, BHS principal Sabrina Vestike, who you hear from later, and BTC director Jason Reed spent countless hours on this project as part of the planning team, making sure this building was everything we promised and all we wanted it to be. and they did it with great enthusiasm and a vision for what could be possible. This would not be the spectacular building it is and be on under budget and on time without their work. Big thanks to this team. >> This is a giant thank you letter but you know lots of people to thank. I also want to thank Energy Efficient Investments for coordinating the monumental move out of Macy's and into this building along with managing the installation of all new furniturees, fixtures, and equipment. I want to thank DIS Construction Consultants, our clerk of the works who made sure the construction matched the required quality, safety standards, and project plans. And I want to give a very big thank you to PCI Consulting as the owner's project representative. It's a big word. PCI put the district's needs first throughout this entire project and we are incredibly grateful to Marty Spalding and his team for their continued support of this building and our district. Marty was a BSD employee, our property services director for a long time before moving to PCI at the very beginning of this project. And while he tends to stay low, he has done more for this district than anyone can imagine. Where's Marty? >> All right, Marty. wherever you are. Those are a lot of people that we brought onto the project site for help. But we must not forget the people who already call BSD home. Countless staff from property services to IT, school nutrition, BHS and BTC teachers, central office staff, and more have poured their blood, sweat, and yes, even some tears into making this project a reality. To all those teams behind the scenes, thank you from the bottom of my heart for getting us here today, ready to open for students on Wednesday. And last but not least, thank you to the taxpayers of the city of Burlington. >> Where are you? >> This is for you. This is for us. When we asked for a bond to borrow for this project, more than 76% of voters said yes. >> That yes vote was a clear message. 76%. Okay, >> that yes vote was a clear message to our district that education matters, facilities matter, and that the well-being of our students and staff matter. Without your support, this project would obviously never have gotten off the ground. So, thank you all for being here today and for celebrating with us. Thank you for being on the team. Next. >> All right, let's go. >> All right. Next, I'd like to welcome our school board chair, Claire Wool, to the podium to say a few words. >> Thank you, Superintendent Flanigan. It is an honor to stand here today in true partnership with you as chair of our school board. I want to recognize all of our elected volunteer school board members, past and present, for their commitment to professional governance, ensuring that our district strategic and collaborative goals will continue to serve all of our public school families, their families, and every Burlington citizen and taxpayer. This critical threat of servitude and partnership has provided effective leadership that affords monumental achievements and community celebrations like this over the past few years, but particularly today as we recognize this incredible accomplishment. Again, Superintendent Flanigan, thank you for your steadfast leadership. As the largest single town school district in the state of Vermont, your guidance has served our highly engaged and diverse community well. We appreciate your clear vision and accountability throughout these five challenging years. You arrived at a fragile time in our district and you immediately established true avenues of teamwork, gaining respect and partnership from all. That partnership specifically with executive director of finance Nathan Labry resulted in this major undertaking to be both on time and under budget. As you shared, our gratitude to all our Burlington residents is immeasurable. Thank you for your investment in this campus, in the health of Burlington's future. As host city to our state university and renowned teaching hospital, our high school and technical center campus will proudly reflect the extraordinary qualities that attract citizens to live and thrive here in Burlington. I want to also acknowledge our public school families who for the past six years supported BHS, downtown BHS at the former Macy's. I see all of you students out there. Your loyal loyal commitment, foresight, and continued confidence in this endeavor was essential. Thank you most sincerely. Today is truly a historical day. I want to thank mother nature for your blue skies and your greenery that embraces this campus. As many of you may or may not know, the original Burlington High School, now the Edmonds campus, was built on Main Street and stood as the entry point to our great city. In 1964, our school district sought citizen support to purchase the Arms Family Farm, which was the last agricultural farm in the city, located right here where we are all standing. This location on Institute Road, now Seahorse Street, would provide a centrally unifying new high school campus that would connect the new North End, the historic old north end, and the South End. Today we celebrate that renewed connection at a time when we need it more than ever. >> Beside me, this iconic bell marks our school's evolution and stands as a symbol of our past, present, and future. In 1964, the bell traveled from Main Street to Institute Road and was affixed to this solid steel arm. For 56 years, our BHS students have enjoyed the tradition of ringing this bell at graduation. It rings as a final punctuation of their educational experience. In 2020, we carefully wrapped it up, placed it in our facility storage where it sat for the past six years, whilst our students attended Macy's, and graduated at UVM's Patrick Gym. This past June, the bell was reinstalled at this entrance and rang loudly for the first time as we honored our 2026 graduates. That bell and our new campus will continue to serve as a symbol of inclusion, inspiration, and excellence. This campus will positively impact the lives of all of our diverse student body, one that currently speaks 38 different languages. They will continue the tradition of unifying future generations throughout our city as BHS and PTC has done so successfully. On a personal note, I'm encouraged when I hear my own children discussing their future plans of having their children attend this BHS. not unlike themselves, their father, their grandparents before them. I hope that consideration is shared by all of our community as we, the citizens of Burlington, have created a unique destination for learning and personal growth. Again, with everyone, thank everyone for your commitment to this building, this extraordinary and dynamic campus. It has been a true collective effort. We did it. And now, Mayor Almighty San. >> All right, I promise to be very short because I have a post-it. That's how short I'm going to be. But I want to first say we've done it, Burlington. We have done it. If you're a Ted Lasso fan and you see the little believe thing that he puts on in that show in the in the soccer uh in the soccer room with all the teammates, we should have one in Burlington because people believed in what this could be. And I'm so proud to stand here with all of you to thank the taxpayers, the voters, the kids, the faculty, the staff, the school board, uh the superintendent for having the courage to put this forward to say we believe in the future of this city of Burlington. And we are going to put our hearts, our minds, and our dollars into what really matters first, which is our children, our future, and public education. So, thank you for that work. I'm also proud of this community because when we have to invest in ourselves, as we heard the vote that that uh was 70 plus%, we continue to invest in what this city needs to move it forward. So, thank you for being part of that. And when I think about uh leading this city as the mayor, one thing that my father always reminds me about, it's about service to a beloved community. Beloved community is something that Dr. Dr. Martin Luther King talked about to really talk about the justice and the peace and the kind of community we all want to be part of that sees the humanity, sees the community and how we need to all work for belonging and true inclusion. If you haven't been inside yet, this is that embodied in a building. Truly, this space is beautiful. It encompasses arms forest. I'm so glad to know the history of the farm here before now. And we should all really embrace what this now symbolizes for our queen city here in Burlington. And with that, I'm going to introduce the Burlington High School principal, Sabrina Vestike, who is going to lead this beautiful community forward. >> It is hard to really express how excited and grateful I am to stand here today together in front of Burlington's new high school. This has been a long time coming and what you see now and what you'll find inside is only here today because of the hard work, >> dedication, and fierce dreaming of many, many people in Burlington and BSD. But before I talk about some of what is to come, I'd be remiss if I didn't first honor the vibrant community that BHS students, faculty, and staff built at downtown BHS. Tenacity, optimism, and resilience were all part of it. Yes. But love made up the better part. Love for our students. Love for our students, for the friends made there, for learning, and for a community bound by unique circumstances and novel challenges. Thank you to all who were part of this journey, who stuck with us through it, and who showed everyone that if you want to learn and you want to teach, you can do school anywhere. That said, though, what a place to do school. While this building was rising from the ground, we were imagining what would be possible when restored to a traditional campus. The question I've put to students, families, and teachers during our visioning work has always been, "How do you want to feel here?" But we've not been restored to a traditional campus. We've come home to an exceptional one. And it has offered its own answers to that question. Throughout dozens of community tours and during the summer days of unpacking, this space has filled with relieved laughter, tears of gratitude, wideeyed wonder, disbelief, or as several students expressed to me while attending older siblings graduation this past June, simply. When someone opened a window during a recent summer planning meeting a couple weeks ago, a few teachers audibly gasped at being reminded that we had windows that could open. They were so delighted by the cool breeze moving through the room. In that moment, a seemingly small thing was a big thing. I suspect the weeks to come will be filled with many similar moments for everyone, our students, staff, caregivers, and community partners. That moment reminded me of a card I received from a friend many years ago when entering the teaching profession. In it, she reflected on what an amazing responsibility and honor it is to educate young people. And she encouraged me to pause to admire all the small moments along the way that cause delight, wonder, and admiration. The card closed with the words, "May your life be filled with tiny gasps of joy." I can't think of a better answer to that question. How do we want people to feel here? As teachers, students, and caregivers settle into the building in the weeks and months to come. Some of the things that will provide tiny gasps of joy about the building itself include the spacious and beautiful gymnasium, the state-of-the-art auditorium, thoughtfully designed band and coral classrooms, outdoor learning spaces, the bright and well-appointed library, maker space, studio, a dance studio, a pottery classroom with two kils, so much more. Oh, and windows. So many windows. an abundance of light and a constant and vital connection to the passage of the days and the seasons. This building allows us to gather to come together as a community in ways that were not readily possible before. As the school year gets underway, pep rallies, whole school assemblies, musical, theatrical, and guest performances within the walls of our own school. Advisory games and competitions will all provide moments of joy. Comfortable and accessible communal spaces indoors and out will allow students to connect in a collegiate environment that they helped design. This facility will enrich education in every department featuring technology to support learning in all classrooms, welle equipped science labs, an amazing instructional kitchen, computer science classroom, and spaces that will support new and restored learning opportunities within our art and design program, physical education program, and much more. And every space has been designed to be accessible to all. Now, we all recognize that this campus represents a considerable investment of this community's money and its trust. And so, I want to close by voicing on behalf of our faculty and staff, our commitment to care for this amazing space that has been entrusted to us and to express our gratitude every day by utilizing fully the the facility and service of the young learners that you have likewise entrusted to our care. We will strive always to be responsible stewards of this incredible resource for our city and our families. So, how do we want people to feel here? As we welcome you into this place that belongs to us all, I hope what you feel here is what I feel now. Enormous pride in this thing we've done together. Gratitude for all the possibilities it opens to our kids. and excitement for all the moments of joy that will fill these walls today, this year, and in the years to come. Thank you so much, Burlington. >> I would now like to welcome back Tom Flanigan to lead our ribbon cutting ceremony. >> All right. All right. Thank you to all our speakers. Thank you all for your patience and getting started and for being here for this amazing experience. At this point, I'd like to invite all our students who are ribbon cutters up to the front, please. >> You all are going to sort of line up right here in front of me. And the ribbon is right here. The blue ribbon. >> All right. Standing before you are current and future seahorses representing nearly every school and grade in the Burlington School District. >> Let's give them a hand. >> And once they all have scissors, I'm going to ask Bonf to let me know and then I'm gonna give you all the go-ahad. All right. Can you help me? Thank you. Got it. You ready, mom? >> Okay, students. Everyone ready? >> Cut that ribbon. >> All right. All right. You can stay there for a second, students. And at this time, we're going to invite you all to join us inside to check out this wonderful building. While you're inside, please stop by the auditorium at noon to hear the bandra christen the new performing arts space you heard earlier. Visit our community partners and shoot some hoops in the gym and bouncy bouncy ass. So, come on in. Let's celebrate. the job. We're going to go up to the hot side. I'll give you a photo. I don't want to Did you see this apple? Oh, that's a picture. I'm excited to see it. >> Amazing. >> Nice to meet you both, Lizzy. just >> and like someone left in that parking lot and there's like >> Oh yeah. >> Is it? >> We'll see when we get in here. I want to thank you because you were part of the team and you didn't get mentioned. Besides, you have a each other. Yes, Hallelujah. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Thank you. Hallelujah. Heat. Heat. Heat. How are you? No. And he just like me. >> Sorry. >> But I mean just so cool. Yeah. >> Well, it's also like this size. So, you take like a little fresh glass, put it in there, and it's still easy. >> I just went and I went to see my sister. >> Yeah. >> Yeah. We had a great time. >> Had some pizza. We're going down to it's the nicest house he's ever involved in in the bathroom. >> Who did you see? >> Yeah, Duncan walked out of the bathroom. I was like, Duncan? He was like, I was >> Hey, you might see more of him now that he's down. Have a great tour.