Experts tell House panel state should fund technical help for rural school building reuse

Two consultants told the House General and Housing Committee on May 9 that Vermont communities facing school closures need state-funded technical assistance and seed money to make adaptive reuse feasible.

Peter Fairweather, proprietor of Fairweather Consulting, and Greg Gossens, partner with GBA Architects and Planners, described lengthy, expensive reuse processes and said volunteers who usually lead the work often lack resources to complete market analyses, feasibility studies and renovation projects.

The experts said school closures typically follow local population loss or economic decline, leaving large buildings that are often liabilities rather than assets. "This whole process is a very emotional process. School buildings are important to people," Fairweather said. He described three upstate New York examples where two former schools attracted buyers quickly because of location near an interstate or a river, while a third remote property remained unsold and was later auctioned.

Gossens said physical constraints often rule out some…