AMHERST — After Tuesday’s final vote that ends the possibility that Amherst will soon be able to build co-located, 375-student elementary schools, supporters and opponents of the project are seeking common ground for finding a way to ensure students in all primary grades will be educated in new or renovated buildings.
School Committee member Vira Douangmany Cage, the only one of the five-member panel who opposed the project, said Wednesday that she remains hopeful a better plan can gain traction following the referendum, which failed to achieve the two-thirds majority needed to overturn Town Meeting’s rejection of the $66.37 million project.
“The benefits are more people are engaged in trying to understand more about the reality that’s on the ground for people,” Douangmany Cage said, adding that more families have gotten involved in school matters as a result of the vote and discussion over the educational plan.
But Johanna Neumann, president of the Vote Yes for Amherst ballot campaign committee, is less optimistic, observing that school officials spent more than nine years putting in applications for state funding and eventually developing the concept of the rejected plan.
That plan called for twin schools, each with Grades 2 to 6, that would have solved the noise and natural light problems caused by the open classroom, or open quad, design used at Wildwood School, which opened in 1970, and Fort River School, which opened in 1973. The plan would have also opened up 30 additional preschool slots by turning Crocker Farm School into an early childhood education center.
While Neumann said she understands there will always be residents opposed to such projects because they feel taxes are too high, those who challenged it on the grounds that a better educational and building plan was possible may be disappointed and find that an impossible task.
“It will be a significant challenge to develop a more equitable, affordable plan that enjoys more community support,” Neumann said.
The Massachusetts School Building Authority, which had approved providing $34 million for the project, gave Amherst until Friday to secure the borrowing authorization. Voters approved by the majority needed for a Proposition 2½ debt-exclusion in November, but Town Meeting sessions in November and January failed to authorize the borrowing.
School Committee member Phoebe Hazzard said the extended conversations around the project have made everyone aware of challenges faced by students and teachers at Fort River and Wildwood schools. The classrooms, built to accommodate up to 100 students in open quads, produce more noise and limit natural light, and the buildings are not fully handicapped accessible.
“I believe that the School Committee is committed to moving forward to address these problems in the best and most timely manner possible,” Hazzard said.
She points to the major repairs that have been identified in the town’s capital program, including a new boiler at Wildwood for $500,000 and a new roof at Fort River for more than $1.5 million. Acting Superintendent Michael Morris is also requesting $115,000 for a site assessment at Fort River. This assessment should determine whether Fort River’s South East Street site is viable for a renovation project, even though it has a high water table and is in a flood plain.
“Dr. Morris’ proactiveness is reassuring the community we’ll be solving problems and will be done in a way that is responsive to critiques,” Douangmany Cage said.
The Amherst School Committee is meeting next on April 25, and Hazzard expects a discussion will take place on what the next steps can be, whether short term fixes or a long-term building plan.
Professional architects have already provided information that renovations would require extensive rebuilding that is as expensive — and possible more expensive — than the twin school project, but with no state support. Any project would also likely be pushed into the future.
School officials and teachers have long identified the challenges in renovations to Wildwood and Fort River. Nearly 20 years ago, the administration was trying to find ways to deal with issues, having already installed partitions in an effort to reduce noise levels. At the time, then Superintendent Gus Sayer called the schools “dinosaurs.”
Maria Kopicki, founder of Save Amherst’s Small Schools, issued a statement appreciating the voters for recognizing the value of the current K-6 schools, as well as the enthusiasm shown by those who supported the project.
“We all agree that our school buildings must be addressed, but we differed deeply about the way that we should approach this problem,” Kopicki said. “We look forward to working with all of our community to address the challenges and opportunities that this process has brought to the surface.”
Douangmany Cage said that the involvement of so many families will ensure that the next process will have input from families of all socioeconomic backgrounds and be more inclusive.
If nothing else, she said that the vote this week shows how much people care about the schools.
“Voter turnout was pretty impressive and showed that we as a community love our town and our schools,” Douangmany Cage said.
Neumann said the referendum effort was worth it, even though she and others understood that a two-thirds majority and 18 percent of voters voting in favor was a near impossible task
“We decided to pursue it anyway because so many people felt this was a once in a generation opportunity to get the children into modern, 21st-century educational spaces,” Neumann said.
She is less sanguine about the future of the elementary schools, because 56 percent already supported the most vetted project.
Some parents devastated by the outcome may remove themselves from the process, but Neumann expects many to stay committed, including those with young children.
While she appreciates that the roof, boiler and feasibility study are in the funding schedule, the failure of the project also means that the district will not be able to implement savings that the co-located school would have brought.
Neumann said this creates a tenuous situation as schools face an increase in class size and reduced specials like art and music, as the current buildings remain problematic for students and teachers.
“This was definitely a loss for public education,” Neumann said.
Scott Merzbach can be reached at smerzbach@gazettenet.com.
