Community Chat Provides Answers To Questions About The New Elementary School Building

The Thursday noon (2/17) Community Chat returned to Zoom after a brief hiatus with a discussion of the status of the plans for the new elementary school in town. The event was recorded and can be viewed here.

Town Manager Paul Bockelman and IT Director Brianna Sunryd hosted Elementary School Building Committee (ESBC) chair and District 1 Councilor Cathy Schoen and Elementary School Committee Chair Allison McDonald. Seventeen members of the public were in attendance.

Several members of the public asked about the educational plan now being developed to guide the design of the new school. McDonald said the plan describes programs currently provided at the elementary schools. A draft plan will be discussed at the next school committee meeting on February 22 with a vote anticipated on March 8. The draft will be posted here prior to the February 22 meeting. The School Committee is still soliciting input and feedback on the education plan. Feedback can be submitted here.

As for the building itself, Schoen said that the ESBC is now in the feasibility process, evaluating both the Wildwood and Fort River sites as to the condition of the buildings, the size of the sites, and traffic patterns around each school. The committee is evaluating seven plans involving both sites and various degrees of renovation and new construction. These plans will be submitted to the Massachusetts School Building Association (MSBA) by March 15. Out of these plans, a preferred one will be selected by June, after which design and cost estimates will be developed. When these are finalized, a request for a debt exclusion override to pay for the borrowing for the school will be put to the voters. If all goes smoothly, the school should be open for students in the fall or possibly the spring of 2026.

There were many questions regarding the new building and compliance with Amherst’s net zero bylaw. Schoen said that DiNisco Designs, the chosen design firm, has designed net zero schools in the past. She said the school will be all electrical and very energy efficient with solar and possibly geothermal to offset the electricity use. Bockelman said that although the MSBA promotes net zero buildings in its seminars, it does not award extra money to pay for it. They will not pay for photovoltaic panels and will only reimburse the cost of excavation for geothermal energy up to eight percent of the total project cost. Bockelman said schools are working to change this funding situation.

Schoen said that most likely there would be solar panels over the parking lot, on the roof, and possibly on some surrounding fields, regardless of which site is chosen. In response to questions about geothermal energy, she said that the committee had visited a school in Lexington that uses geothermal energy, and that the maintenance staff said that the system was designed so that it is simple to maintain. A net zero subcommittee of the ESBC is evaluating the energy saving options.

Another question was whether the project was locked into the square footage on the plan to be submitted on March 15. Schoen said she believed that figure would represent the upper limit of needed space. McDonald added that the plan will be reviewed by the MSBA and the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE), which will determine how well the plans meet the needs of the educational plan and the children being served by the district. The feedback from the MSBA and DESE will be used to formulate the final design.

Up-to-date information on the school project can be found here.