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Date: 2/28/2023
AMHERST – A new ballot committee has been formed to encourage a “yes” vote on the townwide vote this May to approve a debt exclusion to fund the town’s share of the construction costs for the new Fort River Elementary School. According to a Feb. 13 press release, the committee, known as Vote Yes For Our Schools, “aims to encourage a ‘yes’ vote by using coordinated outreach strategies to turn out voters and raise awareness about the proposed school’s many educational benefits, operational savings, and sustainability goals.”
The Massachusetts School Building Authority (MSBA) will fund roughly 40 percent of the project’s overall cost. The town of Amherst must pay the remaining 60 percent, which amounts to about $55 million. The debt exclusion, should it be passed, would allow the town to raise additional tax revenue to pay for the debt service for borrowing funds for the school’s completion. The school would be replacing the old Fort River school and Wildwood Elementary, combining their two student bodies into one building, a decision which will save over $250,000 a year just in utility costs alone, according to committee co-chair Matt Holloway.
The new building will also qualify for federal incentives because it helps Amherst meet its climate goals. It will be a net-zero carbon emissions facility, running on all electric power, reducing reliance on fossil fuels while also providing financially and environmentally efficient heating, cooling and ventilation systems. Classrooms will be big and flexible enough to accommodate all students, including those with special needs. A strong emphasis has been in put in designing windows and doors that allow maximum natural daylight to enter the building, which studies have shown benefits students’ mental health and focus. Pending approval, the project is slated to begin construction in fall 2023 and be completed by 2026.
Committee Co-Chair Kursten Holabird said that school will benefit the town as a whole as well as just its students, and that passing the debt exclusion is necessary for its completion; the MSBA is contributing a sizable amount of the funding, and if Amherst voters don’t seize this opportunity and approve the 60 percent share, then the cost of whatever replacement or solution for the elementary schools will fall solely on Amherst residents in the future, as the town will have forgone its MSBA funding.
“This new school building will offer our youngest learners and their educators the chance to learn and work in a space that helps us meet our town’s climate, fiscal and educational goals… Rejecting this project means that all of the financial burden for replacing both Fort River and Wildwood schools will fall on our taxpayers,” Holabird said.
Holloway said that the more time goes on, the more money is wasted on the current, ineffective buildings, and that the town can no longer afford to replace its elementary schools.
“Voting yes means that our voters agree that it’s past time to replace our failing elementary school buildings and that we can’t afford to wait any longer. The final cost to our town will be about $55 million. If we do nothing, we will waste millions more maintaining bad buildings and will still need to replace two school buildings without state funding,” Holloway said.
The committee recently hosted the first of several community action meetings in the Woodbury Room of the Jones Library where they were joined by Ellen Story, former State Representative and long-time advocate for public education. The meetings are part of the committee’s outreach program to inform voters. Story said that the project is a long time in the making.
“Amherst has been waiting many years for this new school. I’m looking forward to helping voters understand why this project is so important to the future of Amherst and this community, and why the time to vote ’yes’ is now,” Story said.
Holabird and Holloway both strongly encouraged Amherst voters to get involved with the committee’s campaign, and to ultimately vote yes in May. They echoed each other’s sentiments that this project is the only viable solution for replacing the schools that will thoroughly serve the needs of Amherst’s children for decades to come.
“Band-Aid solutions to maintain failing buildings are not a good way to spend our limited resources. We need a better investment for our community’s future and this is why I urge Amherst voters to Vote Yes for our new school this spring,” Holabird said.
“This new school building represents smart design that will fix real and expensive problems with our current school buildings and will offer many added environmental and educational benefits. Our new school will also provide improved and expanded community athletic fields and added space for community meetings and performances. It’s time for us to vote yes for our new school,” Holloway said.
For inquiries regarding the project and the committee, contact them at YesForAmherstSchools@gmail.com.