Public Invited to Groundbreaking For New Fort River Elementary School

Source: amherstma.gov

All members of the community are invited to a groundbreaking ceremony for the new Fort River Elementary School. The groundbreaking will take place on Tuesday, March 26, 2024 at 3:30 p.m. at the Fort River Elementary School, 70 South Pleasant Street in Amherst.

There will be short remarks from local officials and dignitaries followed by a ceremonial groundbreaking which will officially kick-off the construction of the new school. The ceremony will take place outdoors on the parking lot of the Fort River Elementary School. 

The proposed new school will replace two schools – Wildwood and Fort River Elementary Schools- with one new elementary school on the Fort River site. The new school will serve kindergarten through fifth grade. The three-story school will have a capacity of 575 students, with five classrooms per grade.

The new school will be a Net Zero energy building using ground source heat pumps and photovoltaic panels to supply 100% of the energy for the building. The site will include space for outdoor learning and play, with creative, accessible playground equipment.

The project will also restore community playing fields, provide basketball courts, trails, rain gardens, and more for residents of all ages. The school building is designed to enable after-hours use, including a cafeteria with a stage for performances.

The project began with Amherst’s acceptance into the Massachusetts School Building Authority (MSBA) Core Program in December 2019. Based on work of DiNisco Design Inc. and Owner’s Project Manager Anser Advisory Management LLC, the Town submitted its Schematic Design report to the MSBA. The state funding for the project was approved on April 26, 2023. The approved project built on two earlier reports: Preliminary Design Program (3/2022) which assessed space needs given the education program, community priorities and compared options, and the Preferred Schematic Report (6/2022) that selected a new, three-story building at the Fort River site as the preferred option.

The project is expected to cost up to $98.2 million. State support from the MSBA is set at $50.2 million, Eversource incentives for energy efficiency and ground source heat pumps will provide $1.6 million, Community Preservation Act funds will provide $700,000 for fields, with the remaining $45.7 million to be paid by the town. Town officials continue to seek additional funding to offset the cost to taxpayers. Voters approved overwhelmingly municipal funding for the project in a debt exclusion vote on May 2, 2023.

More information on the groundbreaking and renderings of the school can be found here and here.