AMHERST — A volunteer group is forming to advocate in support of the $98 million elementary school to replace Wildwood and Fort River elementary schools.
Vote Yes for Our Schools, a ballot question committee that organized in late January, was scheduled to hold a meeting at the Jones Library Monday evening to outline the project, a 105,750-square-foot, three-story, net-zero emissions building at the Fort River School site on South East Street. The group, which is recruiting volunteers, will tout the project’s strengths and explain it meets the town’s sustainability goals.
Retired state Rep. Ellen Story is joining the group in the lead up to the anticipated May 2 Proposition 2½ debt-exclusion vote.
Story, who also endorsed a failed twin elementary school project in 2016, said in a statement that Amherst has been waiting many years for the new school.
“I’m looking forward to helping voters understand why this project is so important to the future of Amherst and this community, and why the time to vote ‘yes’ is now,” Story said.
So far, there is no organized opposition to the project where 575 K-5 students would be educated, and all sixth graders would move to the Amherst Regional Middle School, either this fall or in the fall of2026. The last proposed project, to build co-located, 375-student, grades 2-6 elementary schools at a cost of $66.37 million, was extensively debated.
With the Massachusetts School Building Authority accepting the town into to the building program, and paying for 40% or so of the building costs, Committee Co-Chairman Matt Holloway, an Amherst parent, veteran educator and administrator, called this “a second bite at the apple.”
“My family and I moved here for the diversity and excellence of Amherst’s schools,” Holloway said. “I’m grateful that we get another chance to build a new school for our youngest learners so that they can receive a quality education in a quality environment now and for years to come.”
