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Amherst Elementary School Building Project

Mission: To build an excellent elementary school that supports child-centered education, meets diverse educational needs of our children in daylight-filled classrooms, uses the outdoors for education and play, and does so in a cost-effective “green” building that incorporates “net zero” energy principles.

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Our Project Advances...

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A brief description of the project:

  • The proposed new school will replace Wildwood and Fort River Schools with one new elementary school on the Fort River site.

  • The Amherst School Committee and Amherst Pelham School Committee have voted to move Amherst’s sixth-grade students to the middle school.  The new school will therefore be kindergarten through fifth grade.

  • The new three-story school will have a capacity of 575 students, with five classrooms for each of the six grades.

  • It will be a Net Zero 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.

  • The project will receive a funding subsidy from the Massachusetts School Building Authority (MSBA).

  • The project began with the acceptance of Amherst into the MSBA core program in December 2019.  

  • In March 2023, the Town submitted the Schematic Design report to the MSBA and is scheduled for the April Board meeting for an official facility grant decision (See TAB for reports)

    • The design built on two earlier reports:  Preliminary Design Program (3/2022) which assessed space needs given the education program, community priorities, and existing conditions, and provided preliminary comparisons of Options and the Preferred Schematic Report (6/2022) that selected a new, three-story building at the Fort River site preferred option. 

  • This website serves as a source of information for the project.

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