Fort River School Building Committee Seeking Architectural Design Team

For More Information, Contact:

Jonathan Salvon, Fort River School Building Committee, Chair, fortriversbc@amherstma.gov​

On May 2, the Fort River School Building Committee released a Request for Qualifications (RFQ) for the Fort River Elementary School Feasibility Study. The Building Committee will receive applications from architectural design teams interested in working with the Committee to provide the Amherst community with options for a Pre-K through 6thgrade school on the Fort River site and the estimated costs of those preliminary design options. The Building Committee’s work will conclude with the delivery of these options to the Amherst School Committee.

The awarded design team will analyze the Fort River site and school building and propose options for at least three feasible designs. The committee will ask the design team to give the community options that span a range of building costs, operating and maintenance costs, and environmental impacts of both initial construction and continuing operations of the building. The committee and design team will also consider how potential design solutions will affect the operations of the school during the construction of such a project. Renovation, addition, partial or complete demolition, and new construction will all be explored.

The successful design team will work with the building committee in a collaborative, iterative design process over an anticipated 6 months. During this process, the Amherst community will be invited to participate in public forums at three milestones to learn about the design processes and offer feedback.

An indoor air quality assessment of the existing building was recently conducted by ATC Group Services from West Springfield, MA.  Results are expected to be available in June.

Community engagement with the Building Committee’s work will include public access to the committee’s website (www.amherstma.gov/frsbc), that provides access to meeting agendas, minutes, and documents; a binder located in the circulation section of the Jones Library; an e-mail address to receive public comment (fortriversbc@amherstma.gov​); an e-mail list serve; public forums; and scheduled press releases. We welcome feedback on all of these strategies.

Fort River School Building Committee Update

In the spring of 2017 Amherst Town Meeting voted to move forward with a feasibility study of the Fort River Elementary School. The goals of the study are to evaluate the site and building in order to determine what are the possibilities for improvement. The School Administration asked for, and Town Meeting approved, up to $250,000 to accomplish this task that should include a structural analysis, initial schematic designs, and implementation of a “community engagement process”. The committee work is anticipated to take approximately 12 to 18 months.

The Fort River School Building Committee is committed to communicating with the public about its progress and getting a great deal of input along the way to inform decisions. Members of the public are welcome to attend the meetings, the location of each meeting will be published in the town website. Public comment is welcomed at the beginning of the meeting or via email at fortriversbc@amherstma.gov. The public is encouraged to visit the committee’s website www.amherstma.gov/frsbc where documents, schedule, agendas, minutes, and other information are available. Additionally, meetings are recorded and will be broadcast by Amherst Media.

If interested in regular email updates, the public can opt-in to our list-serve by signing up on our website. A copy of these email updates and other documents will be kept on the website and in a binder at Jones Library so that anyone can access our documents and notes. Community listening and information sessions will be scheduled at key points of the process. 

Volunteers Needed for Videotaping Fort River School Building Committee Meetings

Volunteers are needed to videotape the Fort River School Building Committee meetings. Amherst Media will provide training and the necessary equipment, and will broadcast the meetings for the community.

The first meeting is Thursday, November 30, 2017 from 4 to 6 pm at the ARMS Professional Development Center and there will likely be one or two meetings per month. Several people willing and able to take turns doing the filming would be ideal to ensure coverage of these important meetings.

Please contact ftriver@gmail.com if you or someone you know can help.

Thank you!