Soon Cutillo was getting requests from national outlets eager to license her photos images that convey both the excitement of this innovative and hastily improvised space and the pandemic weirdness of socially distanced desks inside windowless classrooms. Her visuals complement Novak s text, which recorded the hopeful reactions of students, teachers and administrators who ve been doing their best to cope during this challenging year. It s really cool to see, senior Ariel Felcan said of the makeshift campus. I m excited to spend the rest of the school year here. Novak, the managing editor of
Kids VT, has chronicled the BHS saga for
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The unconventional space went viral on TikTok after a student shared a video with the caption, I m literally going to school in a Macy s what is happening.
The video featured the student riding an escalator, and sitting in class near an old Levi s display. The new cafeteria located beneath a former Michael Kors display was also featured, as was the Calvin Klein shelf library. When we were designing spaces, we wanted to pay homage to the fact that this was a Macy s instead of trying to hide that fact or cover it up, so we deliberately left some of the old fixtures and signage and worked to incorporate them into our new learning spaces, Principal Lauren McBride told BuzzFeed News. We want to recognize that while converting an old Macy s into a school may be different or odd we are embracing that this is really unique and fun.
Welcome to Shop-Til-You-Drop High! Vermont high school relocates to an old MACY S in an abandoned mall after toxic chemicals were found in its building
Last year, dangerous chemicals linked to old construction materials were found in the air at Burlington High School
The school board signed a three-year lease for an old Macy s department store that closed in 2018
10 weeks were spent renovating the former shopping destination to turn it into a school, complete with classrooms, cafeteria, and library
Students now learn under old Levi s ads and eat in a cafeteria near an old Michael Kors outpost
Macy s giant escalators are still in use, while library books are stacked on shelves that once housed accessories or homeware