Vermont
'The people make the place.' Burlington High School seniors graduate from Macy's
During the summer of 2020, PCBs, a class of toxic chemicals, were detected at elevated levels throughout Burlington High School, and the state condemned the campus. After a few months of planning, district officials came up with a solution that made international news.
In just ten weeks, they converted a vacant department store in the Queen City’s downtown into a makeshift high school.
Now, four years later, the students who first stepped onto the escalator in the former Macy’s building as freshmen are graduating. And while attending class in a defunct department store may sound pretty dystopian, for BHS’s class of 2024, that was just high school.
“Obviously it’ll be different than other people’s high school experiences,” said BHS senior Elliot Laramee. “But like, for me, I don’t really feel, like, bad that I ended up here. Because I just never experienced anything different than this.”
It’s not that students at BHS aren’t keenly aware of how strange their high school experience has been. It would be hard to miss all the reminders of their temporary school’s former life. There’s a giant escalator in the middle of the building — which students said is often broken — and sports trophies are on view in former jewelry display cases. Some of the old signage is still up from when things like handbags and jeans were on sale, and students eat at the so-called “Michael Kors Cafe.”
Lola Duffort
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Vermont Public
But over time, they’ve gotten used to it. Brooks DeShaw said at first it was strange to go to school in a place where she once went Christmas shopping. Classrooms didn’t have doors when students first arrived, and the walls didn’t go all the way to the ceiling.
“But I feel like I’ve adapted to it,” she said.
If Burlington’s seniors have adapted to their makeshift home — which students will be attending for at least two more years — it’s also partly because the building has adapted to them. Classrooms do now have doors, and many of the partitions that section off classes go all the way to the ceiling.
Staff and students alike also often talk about something that might, on first blush, appear pretty trivial — the decorations on the walls. Rowen Clarke still remembers when staff first put up these big vinyl decorations that say “Burlington,” in all capital letters, at the top of the escalator.
“I was pretty hype when they put those up. I thought they were, like, really cool,” he said. “Because they were the first, like, ‘Burlington’ thing we had. So yeah, I thought that was pretty cool. And added a lot of schoolness to the school.”
In the intervening years, student artwork, posters and athletic banners have accumulated on the walls.
“It’s unfortunate, and we can, like, laugh about the Michael Kors cafe, but you know, the lunch ladies are there every day with a smile, serving food. There is that. The people make the place.”
Medea Daly
Medea Daly recently took pictures for a project in different places throughout the school, in the exact same spots as she had when the downtown campus first opened. She said she was struck by how lifeless the building seemed then. And in general, Daly said she’s thankful for all the work staff and faculty have put into making the building feel like a home.
“It’s unfortunate, and we can, like, laugh about the Michael Kors cafe, but you know, the lunch ladies are there every day with a smile, serving food. There is that,” she said. “The people make the place.”
Students have also leaned into the absurdity of their situation. In the fall of 2021, BHS seniors asked Lauren McBride, the principal at the time, if they could hold their own Macy’s Day Parade on the Friday before Thanksgiving break. She agreed. And every year since, seniors have kept up the tradition, complete with balloons, costumes and themed floats built from rolling janitorial carts.
“It’s honestly a blur because I’m wearing earplugs because the drums are so loud, and I don’t know anything that’s going on behind me,” said senior Vivian Halladay, who has been in the drumline every year. “It’s one of my favorite things we have at the school. It’s so much fun.”
Students were matter-of-fact about the very real drawbacks of going to school in a building that was never meant as a space for learning. There basically are hardly any windows, for example, and the fluorescent lighting can make it hard to concentrate — particularly if you’re recovering from multiple concussions.
“Trying to go back to learning in a school where there’s really, really harsh lighting, and just getting crippling headaches is not a good thing,” Halladay said.
But on the whole, students said that as much as they liked to joke about how bizarre their high school years had been, it had also helped bind them together.
“It’s not been, you know, great or perfect, but it’s been — it’s been very good,” Halladay said.
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LONDONDERRY, Vt. – At a quick June 1 meeting, the Londonderry Selectboard heard from Trevor Powers, a member of the Londonderry Planning Commission, who discussed a few zoning bylaw proposals. Powers reported that members of the planning commission have been making revisions to the bylaws since July 2024, “with the valuable assistance of William Goodwin, zoning administrator.”
“Items that people of the town have been objecting to have been removed,” Powers continued, adding that clarifications have been made to sections that the state requires and therefore could not be removed. He reported that definitions have been added, and language of the bylaws themselves have been updated.
A summary of the changes can be found in the first two pages of the report, included with the eighth draft of the bylaws, which were approved by planning commission on April 27.
Some of the amendments to the bylaws were discussed by Powers. With input from the housing commission, the number of days that nonpaying guests can stay on a property have increased. The shopping plaza is allowed one large sign, and a smaller sign for each corresponding business. The boundary of the conservation district was raised to 2,000 feet.
The selectboard moved to approve and warn a public hearing for the proposed amendments to the bylaws on July 6, at 6 p.m., at the town office.
Town Administrator Aileen Tulloch announced that treasurer Tina Labeau has initiated tax sales. Tulloch also reported that Doings in Derry would like photograph submissions of the community to upload to the town website, and that the Chester Snowmobile Club sent a thank-you note to the town and will be hosting a community barbecue on June 7, in Chester.
Matthew Barlow from Turning Point of Windham County then spoke to the board about their peer recovery center. Barlow stated that they have a full center in Brattleboro, but the center understands that is not easily accessible to those in the greater Londonderry community. Turning Point is looking to spread awareness about their recovery services, and are seeking spaces in Londonderry or Townshend in which to set up and expand their resources.
Town Clerk Allison Marino moved to discuss the malfunctioning alarm system at the town office, and suggested switching the town’s provider. Currently, Countryside Alarms is servicing the building, but an issue with the alarms sounding has not been resolved in a year. Marino believed there were some redundancies in the system setup that could be eliminated and thought the town could get a cheaper and updated alarm service.
The board then moved to close the Prouty property to the public once construction on site begins.
The Londonderry Selectboard meets on the first and third Mondays of the month, at 6 p.m., at the town office and on Zoom.
The Vermont Housing Finance Agency Board of Commissioners has awarded tax credits that will generate $28 million for developing 241 apartments, according to a community announcement.
The homes will serve low-income renters in seven communities across the state, according to the announcement.
Awards of federal Low Income Housing Tax Credits and state rental tax credits come as development costs and the demand for more affordable housing rise, according to the announcement. Since 2020, the cost to develop an affordable apartment and the number of Vermonters experiencing homelessness have both doubled, according to the announcement.
Competition for tax credits among developers is strong and the criteria for awards is rigorous, according to the announcement.
Three projects will receive $26 million for development costs.
- Highgate Village Housing in Highgate will create 30 apartments. Construction will begin in June 2027 with move-in starting in August 2028. The developer is Cathedral Square Corporation.
- Champlain Housing Trust and Evernorth are developing the Park Street Apartments in Winooski, which will have 24 units. The site is considered a brownfield and will be cleaned to state standards prior to construction. Occupancy is estimated for 2028.
- Twin Pines Housing Trust and Evernorth are developing the Sykes Mountain Apartments in White River Junction, which will have 48 units. Move-in is expected in December 2027.
Four additional development projects will receive an estimated $1.9 million from a state rental tax credit program for development costs.
- Cornerstone Housing Partners and Evernorth are working on the Arlington Village Center, which will have 30 apartments. The project involves the preservation and rehabilitation of 29 existing apartments and the construction of one new apartment across 11 buildings.
- RuralEdge and Evernorth are rehabilitating the Caledonia Renaissance Apartments in St. Johnsbury, which will have 18 units. The project will preserve 18 affordable apartments across five buildings.
- Cathedral Square Corporation and Evernorth are working on the Round Barn project in Grand Isle, which will have 24 units. The project involves the rehabilitation and construction of 24 apartments for aging people in two buildings.
- Jonathan Rose, Ride Your Bike and Champlain Housing Trust are developing the Ride Your Bike Building in Burlington, which will have 67 units. The project is part of a larger 240-plus housing development and is the first phase of a master plan for a currently underutilized parking lot.
This story was created with the assistance of Artificial Intelligence (AI). Journalists were involved in every step of the information gathering, review, editing and publishing process. Learn more at cm.usatoday.com/ethical-conduct.
ORWELL, Vt. (WCAX) – Bud Carpenter is about to take a trip down memory lane.
“Heading to Poultney,” Carpenter said.
The ride there is dotted with silos, with many of the barns he built. “This is one of our buildings here; there’s one over there,” Carpenter points out. And then there’s a building in Orwell.
“That post office over… we built that in the early 70s,” Carpenter said.
Reporter Joe Carroll: Have you figured out how many buildings you’ve built through the years?
Bud Carpenter: You know, I thought about that a lot; I really haven’t.
Bud Carpenter Incorporated, or BCI, started on a “wing and a prayer.” “I just started working, I’d do anything, I’d wash windows, I would paint. I’d even cut meat in the store,” he said. “My first year in business in 1965, I grossed $3,600… Somehow, we made it all work; I don’t know how.
With hard work came jobs and some mistakes. “I’ve done a lot of foolish things,” Carpenter said. “Like get into the used car business.”
Reporter Joe Carroll: How did you have the time to do all of this?
Bud Carpenter: I ask myself a hundred times.
There are massive cow barns to small horse barns, like one in Poultney. “We just did this one last year,” Carpenter said.
With a bum knee and a pacemaker, the 83-year-old no longer works on site.
“He’s a barn building legend!” said Todd Boutwell, Carpenter’s son-in-law, who took over running the day-to-day operations last year. “He’s still there, every day.”
“I like to come out to all of them, I’m on all of them, one time or another, yeah,” Carpenter said.
Back on the road, the conversation turns personal. “I think the hardest part is when I went through a divorce. I had problems with my wife, and we divorced, that’s probably the hardest thing I did,” Carpenter said. “And that’s having to go back on my word… When you get married, you take your vows.”
He has since remarried. Beth and Bud have been together for decades.
And then there was the heavy drinking. “I worked hard, and I drank hard,” Carpenter said. “But I never missed a day of work in my life.”
The drinking has been cut significantly. His recollections of what he’s done are numerous. “You get a little choked up at times on it, everywhere you go, you see things you’ve done: It makes you proud,” he said.
A journey that continues.
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