Burlington School District hopes lawsuit over PCBs can help pay for new high school

Burlington School District has announced plans to sue Monsanto, the maker of the hazardous chemicals which caused Burlington High School and Burlington Technical Center to close. The district hopes to use money awarded from a successful lawsuit to offset the cost of construction for a new campus on Institute Road.

This is the second announcement this week of Burlingtonians suing the chemical company for harms they believe are attributable to Monsanto and its affiliates. Burlington High School teachers who believe their medical issues stemmed from their exposure to polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) in the high school filed a lawsuit on Oct. 5.

The school district hadn't filed by the day of its announcement on Oct. 13, but said it is employing the services of Burlington-based Langrock Sperry & Wool and the national firms Seeger Weiss LLP and Grant & Eisenhofer. The national firms have represented other cities and states in litigation with Monsanto over PCBs, the synthetic chemicals the company created that were used ubiquitously in school and municipal building construction from the 1930s until 1979, when they were banned by the Environmental Protection Agency for being too toxic for humans. The legal teams have agreed to take no money from the district up front and will take a percentage of the awarded money should the school district prevail in court.

A spokesperson for Bayer/Monsanto said they would respond to a complaint if one is filed. “Monsanto company voluntarily stopped producing PCBs 45 years ago and its conduct has been appropriate at all times," the company statement said. "Until the company terminated their production, PCBs were lawfully used in a number of commercial products that were manufactured by other companies."

Burlington High School:Teachers sue Monsanto, the maker of PCBs that closed the school

The Burlington School District expressed a desire to hold the chemical company responsible for harm done and the financial cost put upon the Burlington community.

"As we look to build a new high school and technical center because of the PCB contamination found in our former high school, we promise taxpayers that we will aggressively seek compensation from the corporation that caused this problem," Superintendent Tom Flanagan said in a statement. "Today’s announcement to make the producer of toxic chemicals pay for the harm it has inflicted on our community is consistent with our other efforts to minimize the impacts on taxpayers for costs they should not have to bear."

Dig deeper:The chemicals that closed Burlington High School are everywhere. What about other schools?

Burlington School District is asking for compensation to cover the forced closing of Burlington High School and Burlington Technical Center, which displaced around 1,000 students in September 2020, the costs associated with the rental and renovation of the downtown Macy's department store that was converted into a temporary space, and construction of a new campus to replace the contaminated one. The district hopes money won would reduce the construction debt that Burlington taxpayers would bear.

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Residents will be able to vote on Nov. 8 to approve a bond to pay for $165 million of the construction project that is anticipated to cost $190 million total.

School Board Chair Clare Wool said even though they are hoping money awarded from the lawsuit could bring down the amount taxpayers would owe for new school construction, it is still important Burlington voters vote yes on the bond next month.

“As we move forward, I want to be clear to our community that we do not expect this to be an uncontested or quickly resolved matter. Even though we plan to pursue this course of environmental lawsuit zealously and aggressively, we are viewing this as a long-term strategy and are anticipating that this work could consume a number of years," Wool said in a statement.

The district plans to borrow money over a three-year period, so any money recovered from the lawsuit could lessen borrowing in consecutive years. Wool added the current contaminated campus needs to be demolished starting in January 2023 to achieve their completion timeline of fall 2025, and that money from the bond is necessary to pay for that work.

Contact reporter April Barton at abarton@freepressmedia.com or 802-660-1854. Follow her on Twitter @aprildbarton.

This article originally appeared on Burlington Free Press: Burlington School District to sue Monsanto for PCBs that closed school