MANCHESTER — An agreement has been reached between Burr and Burton Academy and a group of landowners in Peru that will allow the school's proposed "Mountain Campus" to move forward.
The state's Environmental Court issued a judgment order on May 11 outlining the terms of the agreement between the two parties. The judgment order stipulates, among several other conditions, that no more than 100 students can attend the proposed campus at any one time and that there can be no dormitory or student housing on the property. There are also limits on automobile use.
The judgment order was an appeal of a state Act 250 permit the school had received earlier. The school has also obtained a local permit allowing the project to go ahead.
The Mountain Campus or Mountain Semester, as the program is now referred to, is a course of study that will be offered to students in coming years that will emphasize environmental science in a rural setting by the northside of Hapgood Pond in Peru.
School officials hailed the agreement as an important turning point on the road to an innovative and "transformative" addition to the educational opportunities at Burr and Burton.
"It will be an unbelievable educational experience," said Seth Bongartz, the chairman of BBA's board of trustees. "We are convinced this will keep Burr and Burton on the cutting edge and will enhance (the school's) enrollment."
Waiting period
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The school also has a right of first refusal from the landowner to purchase an additional 65 acres of adjoining land to the east of the main 100-acre parcel, according to the judgment order.
Once the sale is complete, the school can begin the first phase of a construction process which will involve clearing some land, improving access to the site and putting up a small cabin-like structure, said BBA Headmaster Mark Tashjian.
A main building will eventually be constructed as well, but the timing of that will hinge on the school's success at how quickly it can move along towards a fund raising goal of approximately $4 million school officials estimate they will need for the project.
"We have some of that in hand, and what we have will go towards purchasing the property and doing the first phase of property improvement," Tashjian said.
The ongoing operating expenses would then fit within the overall tuition costs, but that should not result in an uptick in pressure on the school's finances, he said.
"It shouldn't cost anymore than educating a kid on the main campus," he said. "It should enhance the school, but shouldn't change the cost structure."
September of 2010 was the earliest possible date that he could foresee having the facility ready for classes, he said.
The school plans to build a state-of-the-art main building that meets the highest current environmental standards. They expect it to obtain a LEED platinum rating, which would make it only the second building in the entire state to do so, he said.
LEED — short for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design — is a rating system for environmentally sensitive building construction. Initially developed in 1994 by the U.S. Green Building Council, it provides a set of standards for environmentally sustainable construction. A platinum rating is the highest possible score.
The building will feature lots of natural light and solar heating, and the design aims to produce as much electricity as it consumes, making it an energy neutral, self-sustaining structure, he said.
The curriculum will reflect the green values incorporated into the building, he said. Environmental science would be the centerpiece, but students would also take other courses as well, which would also attempt to take advantage of its wilderness location, he said.
"The overriding concept... is that the curriculum is designed is ideally suited to that location," he said. "We don't want to teach a regular BBA class but (just) have it up on the mountain. We want to teach a class that utilizes that setting as the classroom. I think it will be very attractive to some of our top students."
Students would be transported by bus up to the new campus and take courses there for one semester. He expects the program will be attractive to a cross-section of students, he said.
While the campus has been given a limit of 100 students, he doesn't expect that more than 60 students are ever likely to be up there at any given time, Tashjian said.
The number of students that would be attending school at the new facility was one of the issues that initially divided the neighboring property owners and the school, but that was successfully resolved. Tashjian said that the neighbors were also concerned a dormitory might be built up there, possibly to house the school's international students.
There will also be a limit of 20 days that the facility can be in use during summer vacation, according to the court's order.
While the discussions between the school and the local neighbors started off from a rocky place, they eventually found common ground. The discussions actually helped school officials sharpen the focus of the project, he said.
"We want to convey to the neighbors that we get' what is going on up there," Tashjian said, referring to the natural scenic beauty of the location. "We have every intention of wanting to leave the character of Landgrove and Peru just the way it is now."
Attempts to contact legal counsel for the neighboring landowner's Act 250 appeal were unsuccessful.
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