AMHERST — A timeline is being proposed so that all families with elementary-age students will know by the end of 2025 which school their children will be attending the following fall.

Superintendent E. Xiomara Herman unveiled the tentative timeline for the Amherst K-6 District Restructuring to the Amherst School Committee Tuesday, a plan required as the Amherst elementary school district consolidates students from Wildwood and Fort River schools into the new 575, K-5 school that is under construction on South East Street, next to Fort River, in fall 2026, turns Crocker Farm into a preschool through fifth grade school and creates a new 6th Grade Academy inside the Amherst Regional Middle School.

Herman said planning is well underway, with two consultants working with the principals at the three elementary schools on what the model will look like and the schedule, but no staffing decisions have yet been made. The district is also working closely with the state’s Department of Elementary and Secondary Education on the plans, including the design of the 6th Grade Academy that will be completed over the summer.

The objective of the restructuring now includes realigning “grade configurations across the Amherst elementary schools to support more equitable access to programming, staffing and facilities,” according to information Herman provided the committee.

No later than the end of December, the exact plans will be announced to families, and any changes in which school their children will attend, with a formal vote by the Amherst School Committee by the end of January 2026.

Herman said she is in the midst of providing more regular updates to staff.

School Committee member Irv Rhodes said redistricting was challenging the last time it was done for the start of the 2010 school year, when Mark’s Meadow School closed. In October 2009, one-third of the elementary school students in the schools were notified they would be in a different building the next fall.

“I don’t see where the parents out there will have anything to sink their teeth into in terms of where their kids are going to go,” Rhodes said. “How much lead time do you think is really necessary for parents to be able to prepare?”

In 2009, the committee voted on a map that would equalize the percentage of children from low-income families and those considered “struggling” as defined by test scores and their teachers. That redistricting also ended the practice of clustering students, with Latino students clustered at Crocker Farm and Cambodian students clustered at Fort River.

Rhodes said no one liked that plan or the School Committee for endorsing it.

“I’d like to see that not repeated and the anxieties parents have answered way in advance,” Rhodes said.

Herman agreed. “We cannot go into January and not tell individuals where their children are going to go,” Herman said.

But she also observes that change will be hard and that the district will be executing a process in the best way possible, factoring in the dual-language Caminantes program that has drawn some students to Fort River who, if not in that program, would be taking classes at Wildwood or Crocker Farm.

School Committee member Bridget Hynes said she would like to structure the change so there is some kind of choice families can have, which would make such a change easier. Hynes also appealed for equity to be a factor in decisions.

Herman said equity is important, but also that the most intensive academic programs are in the two schools that will be closing.

“Programming is going to drive where students go,” Herman said,

There will be feedback sessions and open houses as part of the engagement process this fall. The tentative timeline also has draft communications so there is clear, consistent and proactive messaging to families and staff throughout the transition.

“What we are crafting in restructuring of Amherst K-6 is creating an opportunity to continue to educate students and shift their lives in the future,” Herman said.

Scott Merzbach can be reached at smerzbach@gazettenet.com.