Signing the beam was difficult. The colorful marker tips were blunted and it was already covered in hundreds of signatures. Students, teachers and community members all scavenged for a nook or cranny to scribble their name on the long olive green beam.
The last beam of the new high school was raised onto the top of the building today and community members gathered to recognize and celebrate.
Henry Behrens ‘27 was one of the students who witnessed the event and signed the beam.
“I think this is a very significant event,” Behrens said. “I’m very excited for it to be finished in my senior year and to be in it.”
BHS Principal Sabrina Westdijk talked about all the new things that are going to be in the new school: a huge gym with 3 side-by-side basketball courts, a state of the art auditorium with all the most contemporary technology, a beautiful library, landscaped grounds ready for outdoor class experiences, as well as improved building safety and security.
“We have been through a lot and it has been very hard to be in a Macys, and I think we have made a lot of lemonade out of that situation,” Westdijk said. “But to know that in not too long we are going to have this beautiful facility that’s going to be ours feels very special and well deserved.”
Superintendent Tom Flanagan gave one of the speeches to commemorate the event in which he talked about how the last beam represented the optimism of the community.
“The building is really a promise to our community about the importance of young people, of education in our city and our community being one community,” Flanagan said.
Mayor Emma Mulvaney-Stanak also gave a speech at the event.
“I was doing the math and the classes of 2033 and class 2038 will be my kiddos,” Mulvaney-Stanak said. “I stepped in as a supporter of public education and we need vibrant healthy schools for the learning conditions for the students and the work conditions of the hard-working staff. I am really proud we were able to come up with a solution and I hope this for every school in Vermont.”
The solution of a new building has so far taken over 500 days and 134,000 man hours. People came from as far as Utah to work on it.
“This is a 21st Century Building, it’s the sort of building that the city of Burlington and its kids deserve, so I hope they feel valued when they go into the building,” Senator Phil Baruth said. “And as you heard, it is designed to center disabled folks as well as others. The original building didn’t have great design in some ways, this does. My hope is everybody feels valued and worthy as they enter.”
Miriam Ehtesham-Cating, EL Director of Programming, agreed.
“Part of the work that we [Burlington School District Multilingual Helpers] do is to make people feel welcome, that’s the whole purpose of our team, so having a nice place do it in, and having an environment that draws people in, I think is going to fantastic,” Ehtesham-Cating said.
According to Whiting-Turner’s Construction, the new Burlington High School and Technical Education Center is scheduled to be move-in ready on July 10, 2026.
When it was time to raise the beam, the project manager Dylan Lozier got on the microphone and told everyone to imitate “that one show with Ty” (Extreme Makeover: Home Edition), but instead of yelling “move that bus!” we would all say “raise that beam!” On the count of three the crowd called out in unison “raise that beam!”
But nothing happened. The cable from the massive crane was not yet connected. A worker jovially shouted back “a little premature, we better ‘rig that beam’ first!”
They quickly got it rigged, raised and secured the beam and everyone cheered.
“[It’s] exhilarating,” School Board member Clare Wool said. “[This] marks the next step. We can [now] begin all the interior work that needs to happen.”
