Town Infrastructure Updates, Winter 2025

Burlington High School could undergo a major addition-renovation project, now that the town’s legislative body has approved borrowing to fund it.

This story was featured in our Winter Magazine

Read our magazine today for your guide to thriving this season in Burlington.

Seventy-seven of the 107 Town Meeting representatives present at the September 29 session of Burlington Town Meeting voted to approve $333,269,880 in borrowing for an addition-renovation project at Burlington High School.

This vote represents one step forward in a years-long process to address the building’s aging infrastructure.

Following more than a decade of applications to the Massachusetts School Building Authority – the state agency that reimburses towns for school construction projects – the School Committee in 2023 asked Town Meeting for $1.5 million for a feasibility study to determine the best course of action given the constraints of the building and the property.

After considering a number of designs and possible work structures, the School Building Committee settled on a plan that would involve demolishing the center section of the school, building a new classroom wing, and renovating other areas including the gyms & auditorium and the now-separate building that will contain the central office, Burlington Early Childhood Center, Burlington Cable Access Television, and more.

The article, which needed a two-thirds vote among Town Meeting Members in attendance, won by a 77-29-1 vote.

However, the affirmative vote is conditioned upon a town-wide vote to approve a debt exclusion, which is a budgetary tool that would allow the town to increase taxes on residents and businesses to pay for the project until the borrowing is paid off.

The next stop in bringing the project to fruition is a special election.

UPDATE: The debt exclusion vote failed and the School Department will need to return to the table to come up with a new plan.

For the latest info on where the town voted, head over to our BHS Building Project page.

OTHER BUILDING AND INFRASTRUCTURE UPDATES

• The temporary police station is complete, and the Police Department will be working out of it for approximately the next two years while their new home is completed. A bid has been accepted, and the groundwork for the project is being laid.
• The Fox Hill Elementary School project will be out to bid before the end of 2025, and preparation for the project will begin soon after a bid is accepted.
• Work on the much-awaited stoplight at Winn St. and Mountain Rd. is underway.
• Bids are back for the electronic announcement sign approved for the corner of Bedford St. and Center St. at the Town Common, and the project is expected to begin before the end of 2025.