Working group intrigued by co-locating career center at Spaulding and U-32

April 22, 2026  |  By David Delcore  |  The Times Argus

BARRE — A working group created to evaluate potential long-term solutions to the Central Vermont Career Center’s facilities needs may have stumbled over a “some of the above” answer to what was a multiple-choice question.

Though the cost may be prohibitive, and some members remain openly skeptical about the prospect of scheduling a bond vote later this year, they quickly warmed to a concept that wasn’t in the mix at the start of their Thursday night meeting.

The locations were both in play, and there were variations on a “multi-campus” theme. However, neither of them contemplated renovating the career center’s first and only home at Spaulding High School in Barre while constructing a scaled-down new building on the East Montpelier campus of U-32 Middle and High School.

Cost aside, the working group agreed the combination warrants more discussion before members finalize their report to the CVCC board’s facilities committee later this month.

It may be the only option with a pulse. The other four — two of them hybrid solutions that also call for renovating the wing the career center has occupied at Spaulding since it opened in 1969 — weren’t ruled out but were fading fast on a night when no decisions were made.

Cost was the primary concern when it came to a somewhat smaller version of the standalone, state-of-the-art center that was rejected in an 18-town bond vote last November. Planned on property off Baptist Street in Barre Town, the new center would have cost $149 million. Estimates suggest shrinking it to 138,000 square feet would drop the cost to about $127 million — a number widely viewed as a non-starter.

The same was true of the revived idea of constructing a slightly smaller new center at U-32.

The group was told savings associated with the proposed structure’s smaller footprint would be offset by delays associated with complex negotiations between two school districts.

The CVCC district has an option to buy the Baptist Street property for $950,000 but would need to work out an arrangement with the Washington Central Unified Union School District, which is anchored by U-32.

Both multi-campus options that were sent to the cost estimator were less expensive, and both contemplated renovating the space the center currently occupies at Spaulding. One involved developing an even smaller satellite campus on Baptist Street, and the other a mix of renovation, demolition and new construction on the Vine Street campus of a former church-run school in Berlin.

The latter option, which estimates suggest would cost roughly $88 million, would be the most economical. However, architect David Epstein, whose firm, TruexCullins, designed the building that was the subject of the failed bond vote last year, said preliminary plans for the Vine Street site would require a zoning change in Berlin.

“It’s not the horse I would bet on,” he said, noting there would be no hiding the scale of the building that would need to be constructed in a largely residential neighborhood on a dirt road in Berlin.

Just when it looked like the working group, which includes a mix of area residents and school board members, was running out of viable options, Epstein suggested one that members agreed warranted further discussion.

It’s one that, at a time of massive uncertainty regarding the long-term landscape of public education in Vermont, leans into a legislative preference for comprehensive regional high schools.

Creating a toe-hold on two campuses likely to survive any future consolidation conversation was a safer bet than building a new campus — even a satellite one — tethered to any high school.

A satellite campus at U-32 could be built for future expansion and, at a minimum, relieve space constraints at Spaulding. That would allow the career center to serve more students, which has been its goal from the start.

Superintendent Jody Emerson was among those who were intrigued by the idea, which would cost roughly the same as the multi-campus model involving renovations at Spaulding and new construction on Baptist Street but have the advantages associated with partnering with an existing high school.

“It’s an interesting concept that I’m surprised we haven’t thought of before,” Emerson said.

While cost could still kill it, Barre Town resident Paul Malone thought the two-campus model that utilized two existing campuses made sense and aligned with legislative proposals.

“I think this is the answer,” he said.

Todd Comen, an at-large member of the CVCC board and chair of its finance committee, agreed.

“I think it’s a ‘win-win,’” he said, of the suggestion to create a presence on both the Spaulding and U-32 campuses.

Cost and lingering uncertainty over where an ongoing legislative debate over education reform will lead were flagged as concerns by some members heading into the meeting, and both were still very much in play when it ended.

Comen acknowledged as much, noting that despite a promising new option that he said “makes a lot of sense,” preliminary plans for another November bond vote might be premature.

“It just might not be realistic,” he said.

That isn’t a decision for the advisory-only working group that is expected to wrap up its report on April 27 or the facilities committee that is scheduled to receive it on May 5. It will be up to the CVCC board, which briefly flirted with scheduling a second bond vote on Town Meeting Day before agreeing to take more time.

At this stage, Emerson said, scheduling a bond vote with the August primaries is unlikely, and, if the board decides to press ahead, a November bond vote is the likeliest option.