Only voting for Question 5 can save our schools. Otherwise we are left with two obsolete schools with failing physical systems.
Fort River School cannot escape its recurrent mold problems which have several times grievously sickened students and teachers. Renovation would be a waste of money, replacement on the site would repeat the original mistake.
A defeat of Question 5 does mean we fall out of the state funding queue. It would be at least three to five years before we could again have any hope of state funds which we need to do anything about the schools. It would be an illusion to believe that the state would grant money for renovating two such buildings. The costs would be exorbitant, the results short-lived. The strain on local taxes would be unbearable. Building anew is simply cheaper.
The proposed schools are neither “big” nor “mega,” but two conjoined small schools, each in its own defined and separate space within one building. This makes possible, among other gains, a more efficient bus system, fewer trips to fewer destinations.
And we can’t lose neighborhood schools we have not had for at least 40 years. Few students now are able to walk to school, and a large majority are already bused. Plus the Wildwood site, the location of one supposed “neighborhood” school, remains.
What do we gain? Two intimate welcoming schools in one energy-efficient structure enabling almost half a million dollars savings annually. A building, unlike the current ones, incorporating what is now known as the best construction technology, a building to last and able to support renovation if ever needed. A learning environment designed to meet teachers’ expressed needs, fully technologically enabled, quiet classrooms suitable to every student’s ability yet with flexible learning spaces for future needs.
Add that Amherst at Crocker Farm will be able to house a substantially enlarged pre-kindergarten program we now have no space for.
A no vote will further degrade our schools, damaging our children above all, in the name of something that doesn’t now exist. “Mega” and “neighborhood” are buzz words and as distorting as anything in the current national election.
A yes spares waiting for at least 10 more years before we can provide for our children. Yes brings two new long-needed, up-to-date small schools housed separately in one building. State funding for half the cost with the town able to obtain low interest rates for our share.
Yes spares us losing more children to elsewhere and frees us from two physically failing schools. Yes gives our remarkable teaching staff spaces to do its best work and our children two small schools designed to advance the learning of all.
Barry O’Connell, who has lived in Amherst for 45 years, is a professor of English emeritus at Amherst College.