Local Government

Proposed Burlington High School Addition-Renovation Rests on Nov. 15 Special Election - What You Need to Know

A special election is planned for November 15 to see if Burlington's voters will approve a debt exclusion for funding for a new high school building.

Nicci Kadilak

Oct 21, 2025 — 3 min read

Photo by Dmitrii Vaccinium / Unsplash

Burlington High School has long been a topic of conversation – and consternation – in the Burlington Community. Over 13 years, the School Committee has applied to the state to receive reimbursement for a new building, but each time the application has been denied. In 2023, with Burlington's Fox Hill Elementary School accepted into the state reimbursement program and the outlook for BHS looking grim, Town Meeting approved $1.5 million for a feasibility study to determine the best course of action for proceeding with a new or renovated high school.

On September 29, 2025, the project team presented their plan – the outcome of over two years of work exploring the site, establishing priorities, and looking at different construction options – to Burlington's Town Meeting. After much discussion, the body voted to allow the town to borrow a little over $333,000,000 for the proposed plan. The addition-renovation project would result in a new three-story classroom wing and many renovated spaces, including the gymnasiums, the auditorium, and a Center for Education that would house the district's central office, the town's integrated preschool, Burlington Cable Access Television, and more.

The vote was contingent on the town securing a debt exclusion – a funding tool that allows the town to raise taxes for a specific project until that project is paid off. A debt exclusion can only be passed by a town-wide election; Town Meeting on October 6 voted to fund this special election, and the Select Board voted 4-1 on September 30 to set the date to Saturday, November 15.

The single no vote came from Nick Priest, who had long been in favor of bringing the issue to voters during the annual April election. "In my humble opinion," Priest told the Buzz, "the building committee should have waited until January [to bring the article before Town Meeting] and used this time to educate the community...We’re expecting voters with limited knowledge of this massive project to get caught up in 6 weeks when we could have had 5 months." He added that the town's recently-hired Communications Officer could have helped with this effort.

Notwithstanding Priest's objections, once Town Meeting had approved the borrowing pending the debt exclusion, the town had 90 days to hold the election, and in light of the winter holidays and other scheduling concerns, the November 15 date was chosen.

Since then, the conversation about the project and the election has been escalating, with official "Yes to BHS" and "No New Taxes" sides – complete with lawn signs, websites, and letters to the editor – being established.

Disentangling the need for a new high school from the financial implications to the town is a difficult task. Both the "Yes to BHS" and "No New Taxes" sides are largely in agreement that the current high school building needs a significant amount of work, and there are many different opinions in each camp about what kind of work should be done, and when, and how.

The Yes to BHS website, High School Building Committee, and other project representatives cite points that have been discussed for years:

The building, first occupied in the early 1970s, has original mechanical systems which are approaching (or at) end-of-life; if one or more were to fail, repair would require significant disruption to students and faculty, displacing them from the building. Repairs are also likely to trigger code upgrades to the entire school. This work has been aligned with the "renovation only" option studied by the project team and priced out at nearly $330 million.
Many classrooms lack windows, the science labs are outdated, and the building has accessibility and safety issues that are not easily fixed with a renovation.

The "No New Taxes" website takes the position that the time and plan are not right:

No state reimbursement means no relief from the tax burden of this project for residents and business owners. Taxes on the median home (assessed value) are expected to increase by just under $1200 per year when the project is fully bonded; this is in addition to the Fox Hill and police station projects, which are expected to cost another $350 for the median homeowner. Additionally, Shawsheen Technical High School, of which Burlington is a sending district, is at the beginning of their engagement with the state reimbursement program, and Burlington will be responsible for a share of that project in the next decade, as well.
The group says they don't believe resident concerns were properly taken into account with reviewing other sites, funding mechanisms, and plans.

Burlington Buzz is here for you as you become informed ahead of the special election on November 15, which will be the most financially consequential in Burlington's history. We've produced two episodes of Burlington At Work, in collaboration with Burlington Cable Access Television, so you can know about the project details and what a debt exclusion is and will mean for the town.