Next week, kindergartners through fifth graders will walk through the doors of the newly constructed Amethyst Brook Elementary School, ushering in a new era of primary education in Amherst. This is the culmination of decades of local engagement worth remembering as we mark this historic milestone.
Teachers and parents knew that the 1970s design of Wildwood and Fort River Elementary Schools, which Amethyst Elementary replaces, were flawed from the start. In 2014, the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education surveyed 38,000 educators in the state about the conditions of their schools. When asked whether “the physical environment of classrooms supports teaching and learning” 83% of teachers statewide agreed with the statement. Only 8% of teachers at Fort River elementary and less than a quarter of Wildwood teachers agreed. I witnessed some of these problems firsthand as my two boys attended Fort River over the last 10 years. In one classroom, a radiator caught fire. “Sponges” dropped from the ceiling in another, as ceiling tiles grew heavy and fell, having absorbed water from the leaky roof. Kids that needed to use the restroom had to walk through another classroom to do so. My kids got a good education in spite of, not because of, these buildings.
It took far too long for Amherst to address the significant problems these buildings posed.
Amherst’s first bite at the apple to do so occurred more than a decade ago. After years of planning in 2016, Amherst secured state matching funds and voter approval for a $67 million plan that would have replaced Fort River and Wildwood with two colocated grade 2-6 elementary schools at the Wildwood site. Under this proposal, Crocker Farm would have been turned into an early childhood education center, offering universal Pre-K education to town residents. This proposal would have ensured all elementary age students were in buildings conducive to learning, would have eliminated the need to redistrict based on socioeconomic status, and created an educational campus near our downtown with second-graders through 12th graders on adjacent properties. This building was scheduled to open for the 2019 academic year.
Although the majority of voters supported the project, Amherst’s representative Town Meeting failed to authorize the borrowing. A citizens’ campaign to override town meeting garnered 56% voter support, but fell short of the needed two thirds majority and minimum voter turnout requirements. As a result, Amherst whiffed on its chance to get that generation of elementary schoolers into a new building, drove up costs and condemned the town to spend 10 more years throwing good money after bad, replacing roofs and boilers in fundamentally flawed structures.
But Amherst didn’t give up. Many people stayed engaged and, frustrated by the way in which Town Meeting had “vetoed” the will of the majority of voters, organized to change our form of municipal government. In 2018, voters approved a new charter to replace the 254-member representative Town Meeting with a 13-member Town Council. Then, some of these same citizen advocates petitioned the state’s School Building Authority to give Amherst another chance. After a few years, Amherst was readmitted to the process to compete for state matching funds for a new school building.
A new proposal emerged. And while the new building meets more of our sustainability objectives than the previous proposal, it also solved fewer of the systemic problems that challenge our school system and cost an estimated $30 million more than the previous plan. That being said, it was clear to me and many others that moving forward with this new school building was better than doing nothing.
In 2022, 82% of Amherst voters approved a debt-exclusion override to fund the construction of a new school building. And this time our Town Council voted 12-1 to move the project forward. These votes unlocked tens of millions of dollars in state matching funds to help cover the cost of the new school and set in motion the formation of a school building committee to oversee the design and construction of a new elementary school at the Fort River site.
Now, five years later, the town will begin to reap the fruits of its labors. Our kids will walk into our new Amethyst Brook Elementary School for the first time. They will discover what it feels like to live and learn in a highly energy-efficient building that runs on renewable energy. They will explore spaces that are fully accessible and compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). They and their teachers will have 21st century classrooms with ample natural light. And the district will benefit from lower annual operating costs.
This milestone was made possible by dozens of volunteers over decades engaging in countless and often thankless actions — from donating funds, to babysitting, to canvassing, calling and writing to friends and neighbors asking them to join in making this investment in our town. The names of these volunteers won’t appear on a plaque in the lobby of the new school, but the building wouldn’t be there without their efforts. Amherst owes them all a great debt.
Johanna Neumann chaired the campaign to override Town Meeting’s schools vote in 2017 and the campaign to change the town charter. She also directed voter outreach efforts for the 2022 debt-exclusion override campaign for the new school.