CANCO helps celebrate renewal of Burlington High School

After almost four years of planning and construction, renovations at Burlington High School are nearing a conclusion. A ribbon-cutting ceremony was held and tours given Aug. 20, 2025, in conjunction with a back-to-school open house for students and parents. CANCO

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Ribbon-cutting, open house mark near-completion of $45 million, 4-year renovation and addition project, the first major makeover in the school's 56 years. Carl A. Nelson & Company was the construction manager.

More than four years after planning began on improvements at Burlington High School, the project's near-completion was celebrated with a ribbon-cutting ceremony prior to the start of the new school year. The Aug. 20, 2025, ceremony was conducted near the relocated and new-look main entrance to the school under a striking canopy.

Carl A. Nelson & Company (CANCO) has been working in the role of construction manager to guide the project to completion.

"The School Board trusted us to assemble the team and lead this difficult project," Tim Seibert, P.E., CANCO's project manager and past president, said during the ceremony. "And we strived to honor that trust throughout the project. My 4-year-old grandson reminded me this morning, teams build dreams."

Working alongside Bray Architects and its design consultants, CANCO took part in the master planning, pre-construction phase including review of the design, budgeting and schedule development, and management of the construction.

In the end, 19 sets of bid packages were awarded to mostly local contractors — located within 30 miles of the school — that helped keep 80% of the total construction cost in the Burlington region. Ultimately, the people who were engaged in the project in some way numbering in the hundreds, Seibert said.

"It's amazing what can be accomplished with so many people striving toward the same goal," he said.

“The School Board trusted us to assemble the team and lead this difficult project. And we strived to honor that trust throughout the project. My 4-year-old grandson reminded me this morning, teams build dreams.”

Tim Seibert, P.E.

Carl A. Nelson & Company

Members of the CANCO team with Burlington CSD Superintendent.

Carl A. Nelson & Company project team members and company leaders are photographed with Burlington Community School District Superintendent Rob Scott following the Aug. 20, 2025, ribbon-cutting. From left are Project Superintendent Jake Woods; Burlington CSD Superintendent Rob Scott; Project Manager Tim Seibert, P.E.; Project Engineer Will Porter; and CANCO President Chris Smith. CANCO

Master planning in late 2021 engaged teachers, administrators, the school board and other stakeholders to determine wants and needs that wound up totaling $110 million, and also what among those things the district could afford with a budget of $43 million. Faced with such a disparity between funding and ideas, the Burlington School Board opted to focus on addressing issues that had largely gone begging since the school first opened in 1969.

In the 50 years that followed, a series of small additions brought the building to 280,000 SF. But at no time was any major remodeling, or infrastructure upgrades, undertaken.

The project addressed all of that with $9 million in COVID-19 air quality grant funds from the federal government to cover the Phase 1 replacement of most of the school's aging HVAC system. Phase 2, which was funded with $33 million in sales tax revenue, included a complete renovation of the academic wing and other spaces throughout the existing building and Industrial Arts building, as well as the addition of a new fitness center to replace space being lost to mechanical system upgrades. Savings identified through close management of the budget, plus income the district earned on invested bond proceeds, expanded the project scope to $45 million with added improvements including new tennis courts, a partial replacement of the gymnasium roof, and a new gym floor that is being installed as the school year gets underway.

BHS Principal Nathan Marting described the project as building a brand new high school from the inside, out.

"It is a beautiful facility," Marting said. "But it is a well-intentioned, well-designed facility, to provide the optimal environment for teachers to teach, and students to learn."

From the start of construction during spring break 2022, the work was divided into 10 total phases, with the seven school-year phases being completed during after-school hours.

"The project dream was to provide a facility to maintain and improve the education of Burlington's high school students," Seibert said, "without sacrificing the education of the students during the three-and-a-half years of construction, and I believe we accomplished that dream."