Courtesy LeChase Construction / WHLA
By Susan Elise Campbell
LeChase Construction Services, LLC is nearing completion of five new buildings at The Charlton School in Burnt Hills, a project that has proven to be both unique and a favorite among the building team according to Mike Corey, regional director of business development at the Schenectady office.
The Charlton School is a non-profit therapeutic learning community and accredited year-round boarding school for high school-aged girls. Founded in 1895, its cottage residences were cinder block construction dating back to the 1950s, and the school asked for bids to replace these with a quad of new dormitory structures with a more modern aesthetic and better amenities, according to Erica McCarthy, project manager for LeChase.
In addition, the school had obtained enough grant money to also erect a new maintenance building to consolidate the equipment and tools that have been spread out at various locations around campus, she said.
These improvements make up Phase I of a multi-tiered master plan that began “boots on the ground” in April of 2024, said Eric A. Coburn, Sr., the firm’s director of field operations.
“LeChase Construction has a portfolio of schools, academies, and colleges and is a national leader in K-12 construction management,” Coburn said. “The reputation of the company goes a long way in winning projects, and pricing is also very important.”
Coburn said the design of the new buildings by Balzer & Tuck Architecture in Saratoga Springs had been approved by the time the school short-listed the project and that LeChase and Balzer & Tuck have worked on many projects.
A therapeutic school provides struggling youth with emotional, behavioral, and mental health support, according to the National Association of Therapeutic Schools and Programs.
“Our students have a range of anxieties and emotional issues,” said Bo Goliber, chief strategy and impact officer for The Charlton School.
She said that many students come from New York City or Long Island and aren’t used to nature or having such space to grow. The school sits on 275 acres of treed countryside at 322 Lakehill Road in Burnt Hills.
“The campus is unique because of the sheer beauty of where we are located and natural resources that we incorporate into our holistic approach,” said Goliber.
“Here students can enjoy recreation, individual and family therapies, and still focus on education with a structured classroom environment,” she said. There is one teacher and one teacher’s aide for every six students.
The school offers equine therapy as one part of its curriculum. An immediate challenge for the LeChase team was to clear an area for three paddocks and to undergo construction without disturbing the horses or the students and their routines, McCarthy said.
For LeChase, that meant taking feedback from the school’s facilities team and equine therapist so that the horses could get used to the noise and changes around campus, as well as their temporary relocation, according to Goliber.
“We determined even before the interview process that we would panelize all of the buildings offsite to reduce the disruption from hammering and nail guns,” said Coburn.
Goliber said there were even times when the construction teams tweaked their schedules to work around what the school was planning with visitors or other activities.
“The LeChase team treated our project with such care and importance,” she said. “They took time to understand the population we serve and they 100 percent put the needs of our students first, and that means the needs of the animals, too.”
McCarthy said the team’s interest in the students extended to giving them hardhats and short tours of the structures that were to become their home away from home. The crew was confident that “the new dormitories will improve the overall experience of the students,” she said.
The four new one-story dormitory buildings are shaped into a quad with a common area in the middle, McCarthy said. Each ranch style dormitory has a large porch and a view of green space, and Goliber said they “may build a fire pit or something to create a gathering place.”
Each sleeps nine students and offers five bathrooms and a great room with exposed beams, a gas fireplace, and large windows. These amenities give students a more intimate space to gather than the former cottages had, while adding to a feeling of comfort, home, and community, McCarthy said.
The exteriors are traditional horizontal clapboard with tongue and groove porch ceilings and exposed Douglas Fir beams, and McCarthy said the outside has “a very residential feel.” The buildings were designed and built to be long lasting and maintenance free, Coburn said.
For McCarthy, the project took on special meaning after a family gathering, during which she mentioned her involvement with The Charlton School project. Her great uncle revealed that his sister, her great aunt Dorothy, had worked at the school in the 1950s-1960s as a house parent, or what is called a resident assistant today.
McCarthy learned there were old photo albums on site at the administration building and she found a picture of Dorothy on the front porch of Holly Cottage with an associate greeting a new student.
Later the facilities director of the school pointed out the window where the house parent would have lived, and McCarthy said she could imagine her great aunt looking out of her room to the exact spot where she was now standing.
“It’s a real full circle moment,” McCarthy said. “I always bring dedication to my projects, but it definitely means a lot to contribute to this one and impact the lives of so many students.”
“I consider this project a favorite in the 40 years I’ve been doing this job,” said Coburn.
“At LeChase, construction is not just about sticks and bricks,” said Corey.
The Charlton School project is on schedule for a ribbon cutting to mark Phase I completion on June 12, 2025, exactly one year from its ground breaking ceremony. Students will move into their new dormitories immediately following June graduation.
Visit lechase.com for more information.