AMHERST — Construction of Amherst’s new $97.5 million elementary school, to open for classes in the fall of 2026, will begin next month after officials received a low bid from a Waltham-based general contractor that is more than $4.8 million below the funding agreement between the town and state.

With CTA Construction Managers submitting the lowest of three bids for the construction of the school itself at $73.48 million, last Thursday, the Elementary School Building Committee was informed the following morning by the owner’s project manager that a contract can likely be awarded, meaning the company will begin site work for the project, next to the current Fort River School on South East Street, early next month.

“The news is good,” said Margaret Wood, of Anser Advisory of Boston, the project manager. “We are under budget and it appears we have a low bidder.”

“This is thrilling news,” said District 1 Town Councilor Cathy Schoen, who chairs the building committee.

Schoen said with three viable bids, the green light can be given for constructing the 105,750-square-foot, net-zero emissions building with space for 565 K-5 students. The building, designed by DiNisco Design of Boston, will be powered by ground-source heat pumps and photovoltaic panels.

“It’s going to be an amazing asset for our kids, the community and the town on its energy initiatives, and hopefully we can be building on this success,” Schoen said.

When complete, both 1970s-era elementary schools, Wildwood and Fort River, will close, bringing an end to the buildings that use an open classroom, or open quad, format that has made classrooms noisy and limited natural light. Sixth grade students at those schools, as well as at the town’s third elementary school, Crocker Farm, are supposed to relocate to a 6th Grade Academy at the Regional Middle School.

The Fort River school building will be demolished to make way for playing fields and other outdoor elements that will support the new school, while the future of the Wildwood building is up in the air.

The other bidders were J&J Contractors of North Billerica, which submitted a $75.01 million bid, and Fontaine Brothers Inc. of Springfield, which submitted a $75.62 million bid.

The anticipated awarding of a contract continues a lengthy process to get a new elementary school that resumed after Town Meeting in 2016 failed to authorize spending for a twin school project at the Wildwood School site on Strong Street, and voters in 2017 failed to overturn that decision.

After being accepted back in to the state’s school building program, and with a new form of government, the Amherst Town Council approved a Proposition 2½ debt-exclusion override, and then the Massachusetts School Building Authority in late April 2023 unanimously approved over $40 million to fund Amherst’s project. That amount from the state has since been increased to around $50 million.

In May 2023, voters passed the Proposition 2½ debt-exclusion override with better than 80% support for the new school.

The funding agreement with the Massachusetts School Building Authority is $81.34 million, and the work has been estimated at $76.55 million. Adding in the bid from CTA, the total committed construction costs for the project are now $76.5 million, which includes $2.25 million for early construction work done by Gagliarducci Construction, purchase of electrical equipment and other assorted expenses.

Wood said if there are bid savings, MSBA will notify the town. Then, the standard practice is usually to place that savings in a contingency account, adding to the $4.6 million currently available for contingencies.

Kseniya Slavksy, also of Anser Advisory, elaborated. “The good news is because the overall package came in at a lovely savings ... that leaves a larger contingency at the end,” Slavsky said.

The total project costs includes various soft costs, furniture and technology for building and site work, along with the expenses for the architect and the owner’s project manager.

Before the contract is awarded, CTA will have to provide minority- and women-owned business participation documents, Slavsky said.

Building committee members had some questions about the bids and the project.

Bruce Coldham wondered if the $2.2 million bid spread between the three bids was unusual and whether there was anything to learn from it.

Wood said it indicates the design documents were very good and there was no big discrepancy, and she praised DiNisco for its work on the project.

Rick Rice, a principal at DiNisco, said CTA’s low bid may have been due to market conditions, and there is no evidence of any mathematical errors.

“I think CTA was very aggressively trying to establish a foothold in the western part of the state,” Rice said.

Committee member Jonathan Salvon, an owner of Kuhn Riddle Architects, said it was a nice cluster of bids and that he didn’t see the spread as being too large.

Wood said she has confidence in CTA, which has a substantial body of completed elementary school projects.