CVCC site search narrowed to two including U-32

September 6, 2024  |  By David Delcore  |  Times Argus

BARRE — The search for a new home for the Central Vermont Career Center has tentatively been narrowed from nearly 200 sites to two and neither is in Barre, where the center has operated since it opened under a different name in a wing of Spaulding High School in 1969.

If the center’s now-autonomous board has its way, it will celebrate its 60th anniversary in a new, state-of-the-art facility it hopes will be able to welcome an expanded number of students when the school year starts in 2029.

The clock is ticking and while the timeline still reflects a bond vote for the massive project next November, Superintendent Jody Emerson said Wednesday that could change based on decisions that haven’t yet been made by the state.

For the moment, Emerson said, the board is sticking with the next November target and will be briefed on the status of a consultant-led site selection process when it meets on Monday.

The board’s facilities committee got a preview Tuesday when members were told a search that started with 196 possible locations in the core of the 18-town district was whittled to seven promising sites whose owners were all contacted by Emerson.

Based on those conversations, two are viewed as viable options, though there are questions that must be answered about both.

One is a sprawling undeveloped tract on Airport Road in Berlin, and the other is right in the middle of U-32 Middle and High School’s campus in East Montpelier.

The committee was told the owner of the 450-acre tract on Airport Road is eager to sell, and officials in the Washington Central Unified Union School District haven’t ruled out the possibility of sharing the U-32 campus.

Though wetlands could limit the development potential of some, if not much, of the Airport Road property, the committee was told it could easily accommodate preliminary plans for a building with a 100,000-square-foot footprint.

The property, members were told, would provide the district with a blank slate to construct the full-day career center it has been talking about since before the district was created, with ample room for expansion.

Located on the fringe of Berlin’s new town center, the property is just down the road from Central Vermont Medical Center and across the street from several businesses — including Benoit Electric — that could enhance or expand internship options for students. The state Agency of Transportation’s plans to construct a new central garage not far away on Paine Turnpike North was considered an added bonus.

Wetlands were flagged as a concern, the cost of acquisition is an unknown, and the property isn’t as development-ready as the U-32 campus.

The fact that the 164-acre U-32 campus is an active campus poses different challenges. If the site were chosen, contractors would have to work around a functioning school on a tighter tract that is largely developed.

Still, the committee was told the same scale facility could be accommodated on the site and, as was the case with Airport Road, provided with some illustrative examples of what that might look like.

Based on the preliminary drawings, the new building would require replacing playing fields on the far end of the U-32 parking lot to accommodate the proposed building and the 180 new parking spaces it would require.

The potential for future expansion would be limited at the site, but the committee was told relying on the cafeteria, library and other core facilities at U-32 could shrink the new building’s footprint and that could include traditional classes.

Barring that kind of synergistic relationship, the committee was told co-locating with U-32 would make less sense than starting from scratch on a new site.

The board of the career center hasn’t ruled out co-location, and in June reached out to its six sending school districts to see if there were interest in exploring a regional high school. Emerson said none of the board’s of those districts has formally responded to the overture, but the potential for some consolidation has openly been discussed given steadily declining enrollment.

Those unsettled conversations create uncertainty for a career center proposal, which, if executed as initially envisioned, would have a significant impact on enrollment at all six of its sending high schools.

“It’s hard in this environment to know what’s best for students,” Emerson said.

It may be that, for cost estimating purposes, consultants evaluate both distinctly different options — one that would allow the career center to establish its own identity and the other that would tether it in some fashion to a high school that can serve far more students than it currently does and could accommodate a sizable new neighbor.

Emerson said that can’t happen at Spaulding, where the only expansion possible would require using more of the Barre-based high school for a career center looking to upgrade its facility.

This story was originally published in the Times Argus.