Burlington schools to purchase St Joseph School and sell properties to UVM

At the regular Burlington School Commissioners meeting held at City Hall, the Board voted unanimously with a request to purchase the St. Joseph School on Allen Street. The formal request must be approved by City Council before the offer can be made to the St. Joseph Co-Cathedral Parish. The 53,000 square foot building would be available as a key component in planning to meet the needs of the school district. Proceeds from an offer from the University of Vermont to purchase the School Administration building at 150 Colchester Avenue and the long term lease of the Taft School at 14 South Williams Street would fund the acquisition and school renovation.
UVM Board of Trustees has made a request to purchase 150 Colchester Ave. for $2 million. The University is entering into an 80-year, $20,000-per-year lease agreement with the Burlington Schools for the Taft School, monies it will prepay in a lump sum of $1.6 million covering the life of the lease. The University will have the option of renewing the lease for another 80 years at cost of $1 per year.
The Board of School Commissioners has accepted the University offer pending approval from City Council and the purchase of St. Joseph.
UVM will take possession of the buildings in the summer of 2014, which gives the Burlington Schools a year to relocate the personnel and programs currently housed at Taft and the School Administration Building. The Taft building houses two programs, OnTop is a special needs program which serves 27 students from grades five through twelve and Horizons, a tenth through twelfth grade alterative high school program currently with 40 students. The 150 Colchester Avenue building houses the district’s school administration and the Early Essential Education Program with 36 pre school students.
The total square footage of the Taft and School Administration buildings is 43,000 square feet. The current annual operating costs for the Taft building is in excess of $68,000. The District has leased a major portion of St Joseph to house students from the Sustainability Academy and Flynn Elementary while the respective schools were being renovated. The operating costs for St Joseph is about half of the cost of operating Taft and Ira Allen.
UVM is in the process of determining how best to utilize the Colchester Avenue Building. The Taft School may be used for academic purposes that will have a partnership component with the Burlington Schools.
Jeanne Collins, Superintendent indicated ‘We are very excited to be able to utilize a school facility close to the center of our city. We believe that this opportunity will enhance school operations and benefit our community.’
‘We have a shared mission with the Burlington Schools of educating young people,’said UVM President, E. Thomas Sullivan. ‘We’re pleased to enter into an agreement that will help each of us enhance our ability to do just that.’
According to Robert Vaughan, UVM’s director of capital planning, the newly acquired buildings are a needed, strategic, and relatively low cost addition to the university’s inventory.
‘Both buildings have been in our Campus Master Plan since 2006,’he said. ‘They fill a real need at a very manageable cost.’
150 Colchester Ave. also offers the advantage of being connected via a hallway to a building the university already owns: the Ira Allen School, a child care center.
The St. Joseph Co-Cathedral Parish has been approached with the offer to purchase St. Joseph for $2 million. The City Council will need to approve the offer before the Parish will receive the offer formally and make a response. It is noted that the School District is not selling Taft but is entering into an agreement for the University to utilize the property for academic purposes in keeping with the deed and legal covenants.
Representatives from the Board of School Commissioners will meet with the Finance Committee of City Council to outline the request.