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.

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 3-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 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 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, existing conditions, and provided preliminary comparisons of Options and the Preferred Schematic Report (6/2022) that selected a new, 3-story building at the Fort River site preferred option.
This website serves as a source of information for the project.