AMHERST — A new elementary school to replace both Fort River and Wildwood schools would have 30 classrooms and significant space for special education and arts and music programs, and well over 100,000 square feet in total, based on a draft educational plan given to the Amherst School Committee this week.
The plan, which identifies the existing programs in the school and defines space needs through formulas provided by the Massachusetts School Building Authority, will be submitted to the state in mid-March.
Donna DiNisco of DiNisco Design told the committee that the educational plan is an important first step in the process that could have a new, expanded or renovated elementary school ready for occupancy by the fall of 2026.
The draft educational plan shows a building with 113,765 in gross square feet, well above the 85,052 square feet that would be required by state guidelines. This is caused, in part, by the core academic area, or 30 classrooms, being 36,650 square feet, or 10,700 square feet more than the guidelines call for, and 12,950 square feet for special education space, or more than double the 6,040 square feet required in the guidelines.
The new building would serve up to 575 children from kindergarten through fifth grade. Up to 21 students could be in each kindergarten and first grade classroom, up to 23 students would be in each second and third grade classroom and up to 24 students would be in the fifth grade classroom. There would need to be five classrooms at each grade level.
DiNisco said her calculations were made by taking the state guidelines and applying them to the unique requirements set by the Amherst school district. If programs currently exist, the MSBA and the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education want to make sure appropriate spaces for them are in the project, she said.
The plan, though, doesn’t yet have any associated cost estimates, with DiNisco likely to bring these to the committee’s meeting on March 8. Without a price tag, committee member Jennifer Shiao said it is hard to react to the plan.
“I feel a little bit uncomfortable with not having enough information,” Shiao said.
Committee member Peter Demling said even if the costs become a concern, there is little room to make significant reductions in the size of the project.
DiNisco said she is also looking at the possibility of just a replacement building for Fort River that would be a school for kindergartners through fifth graders, but would have room for just 165 students in 12 classrooms. Under that scenario, Wildwood would remain intact.
Both plans call for sixth graders, who are also educated at Crocker Farm School, to move to the Amherst Regional Middle School in fall of 2023.
Scott Merzbach can be reached at smerzbach@gazettenet.com.
