AMHERST — The new Amethyst Brook Elementary School is about $100 million worth of steel, brick and mortar.
It’s a haven to cultivate learning for the town’s young people, and a place of recreation for residents of all ages who will have access to fields and a cafetorium. It’s also a milestone, the town’s first net-zero municipal building, and an ambitious three-story, 105,750-square-foot symbol of Amherst “building big.”
For Amherst parent Lindsay Trottier, the new school marks a world of difference: an end to years of mold, mildew and other problems, and a fresh start in a brand-new building.
These points were highlighted at Monday’s ribbon-cutting ceremony, marking the official opening of Amethyst Brook, though the school has been in operation since the start of the school year in late August. Adding to the excitement shared among families, state and local officials, students involved in the school’s chorale and dance group danced and sang for the occasion.
The school combines the former Wildwood and Fort River elementary schools into a single building on the Fort River site.
State Rep. Mindy Domb praised the project’s architects, DiNisco Design, calling them the “most fabulous architects in the whole world.” She said the school reflects Amherst’s willingness to think big.
“This is the future of the town,” Domb said. “And the future of the town means building big things.”
Town Manager Paul Bockelman said the project’s focus was always on giving Amherst’s children a better future, even at the price of paying higher taxes.
Funding for the project included up to $49 million from the MSBA’s core building replacement program, $5 million in town reserves to reduce borrowing, about $1.5 million in Eversource incentives for energy-efficiency measures and ground-source heat pumps, and $700,000 in Community Preservation Act funds for the playing fields. The town will cover the remaining costs of about $43 million from a debt exclusion approved by voters in 2023.
“We always kept reminding ourselves that this is about the students, it’s about the children of Amherst,” Bockelman said. “It’s about the residents of Amherst building something for the children of Amherst, and that’s what this did.”
Massachusetts Treasurer Deborah B. Goldberg praised community leaders, legislators and Massachusetts School Building Authority officials, all of whom collaborated on the project over the past decade.
“We are here to celebrate these amazing kids and the future that they’re going to experience through the beginnings of what they have here in this building,” she said.
State Sen. Jo Comerford called the school “gorgeous” and praised the community’s ambition.
“As I was leaving the house earlier this morning, I thought, ‘This day is as bright as the future of Amherst,’” she said. “You say yes to the impossible.”
Designed to accommodate 575 students, the three-story school uses color to distinguish its floors: blue on the lower level, green on the second and yellow-orange on the top. Each grade level has five classrooms.
Outside, the grounds include accessible playground equipment, basketball courts and outdoor learning spaces. Plans also call for restoring existing playing fields, adding trails and rain gardens, and expanding recreational opportunities for residents in every age bracket.
The building is designed to welcome the community after school hours, too, with a “cafetorium” featuring a performance stage, along with a library, gymnasium and music and activity rooms.
Solar canopies over the parking lot and panels on the roof will help power the building, while 84 underground geothermal wells will help heat and cool it.
The Caminantes Spanish-English immersion program, founded at the former Fort River Elementary School, continues at Amethyst Brook.
Principal Allison Estes brought the hundreds gathered for the ceremony into the celebration, leading an interactive Spanish-language chant: “¡Estamos listos!” — “We are ready!”
For Trottier, whose daughter attended Wildwood from kindergarten through elementary school and whose son went there through first grade before moving to Amethyst Brook for second grade, the new building represents a deeply personal change.
“Coming from the 1970 school with mold and mildew .. into clean air, and just a brand-new structure, it just really warms my heart,” she said.
