Amherst school officials prep for student move, rezoning

Xiomara Herman, superintendent of the Amherst Regional School Distinct, in her office.

Xiomara Herman, superintendent of the Amherst Regional School Distinct, in her office. STAFF PHOTO/CAROL LOLLIS

By SCOTT MERZBACH

Staff Writer

Published: 12-19-2024 10:33 AM

AMHERST  — Sixth graders at the town’s three elementary schools will now relocate to a stand-alone 6th Grade Academy in fall 2026, a move that will come at the same time as the opening of a new elementary school and a townwide redistricting for primary-age children, according to school officials.

While it had been assumed by school officials since last spring that the 6th Grade Academy, possibly to be housed in the Amherst Regional Middle School, would not be ready for fall 2025, Superintendent E. Xiomara Herman made that official Tuesday.

“Sixth grade will not be moving this upcoming school year," Herman told the Amherst School Committee.

Such a move of sixth graders is necessary before or when the new 575, K-5 school opens at the site of Fort River School on South East Street. Once that building opens, the aging 1970s-era Fort River and Wildwood schools will close, while the third elementary school, Crocker Farm will remain as a K-5 school.

Under the current plans, Herman said the new year will start with meetings with principals at the three schools and with her district team, to create a timeline for moving sixth graders. Also to be done, she said, is an appropriate redistricting or rezoning, which will set the lines across town to determine which school a student will attend, allowing the right number of students to be at each grade level in the two elementary schools operating in fall 2026.

School Committee Chairwoman Sarah Marshall said both the sixth grade move and the rezoning will be topics of intense interest for families, and administrators should get feedback from families before presenting any recommendations.

Both the sixth grade move and redistricting should be studied by a subcommittee, said School Committee member Jennifer Shiao, so parents will understand what the changes will mean.

Herman said she is likely to establish a small task force. But the planning brings worries.

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“I am concerned about how we are going to be able to sustain the balance of the population with just two schools," Herman said.

She also is nervous that the capacity of the new school is less than the two schools it is replacing, that Crocker Farm’s Early Education Center is continuing to expand and whether there will be enough space at the middle school if sixth graders join the seventh and eighth graders there.

Herman said it’s possible that school population projections used to make decisions are not accurate.

This year, there are 982 K-6 students enrolled, with 315 at Wildwood, 372 at Fort River and 295 at Crocker Farm, which also has 58 students in its Early Education Center.

School Committee member Bridget Hynes said she was troubled that the new school building, which is expected to be constructed over the next 18 months, may not be able to meet the district’s needs. “I'm just at a loss here, I don't like this at all,” Hynes said.

School Committee member Irv Rhodes said his experience with redistricting that followed the closure of Amherst’s fourth elementary school, Mark's Meadow, in 2009-2010, is a warning. “Believe me, we were not well liked by anyone," Rhodes said.

Rhodes said it’s incumbent on the School Committee to work with the superintendent on plans. “The sooner we get on this task the better,” Rhodes said.

Herman explained that changes are also complicated by the Caminantes dual language program, housed at Fort River School, which draws some of its English and Spanish speaking students from out of the current educational zones. This means that transfer buses come to Wildwood and Crocker Farm each day to bring students to Fort River, who arrive late each day and leave early, and lose up to an hour of instructional time.

As part of rezoning, the schools will look at transportation routes and how each district is laid out, as well as whether it would behoove some programs to shift between buildings, such as having more room for Caminantes.

Even though capacity issues have arisen at Fort River, Herman said she confident that there will be sufficient room in the building for sixth graders to remain there for the 2025-2026 school year.

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