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.

Update from the Amherst School Committee Chair and Vice-Chair

The Amherst School Committee is pleased to announce the membership of the School Building Committee for the Fort River Building and Site Feasibility Study. At our Tuesday, October 17th meeting, we randomly selected four at-large community members to serve on this 12-member committee. We would sincerely like to thank all those who submitted applications, and to those community members, educators, administrators, and town employees who will be offering their time and service to do the important work of this committee going forward.

The selection process went as follows:

• All completed applications were numbered and names were removed.
• These numbered applications were shared with all School Committee members via email.
• The Chair and Vice-Chair reviewed the numbered applications and sorted them according to the positions for which they applied, which included:
• Community Member with Green Energy Expertise and Architectural Background-At-Large Parent/Guardian/Caregiver
• At-Large Community Member #1
• At-Large Community Member #2

The Chair and Vice-Chair shared all complete applications and the categories with the Committee; final selections were made randomly during the public Committee meeting on Tuesday. The Committee publicly committed to having a minimum of 50% of the voting membership of the School Building Committee be composed of women and persons of color. Applications were considered accordingly based on the optional self-identification of applicants.

The final School Building Committee is as follows:

- Eric Nakajima, Amherst School Committee Representative

- Diane Chamberlain, Fort River Principal

- TBD, Green Design/Architectural Representative

- Heather Sheldon, SEPAC Representative

- Jonathan Salvon, Fort River PGO Representative

- Irene Dujovne, Parent-at-Large

- Allison Page, Community Member-at-Large

- Maria Kopicki, Community Member-at-Large

- Claire McGinnis, Town Finance Representative

- Jean Fay, ARPS Staff Member

- Nicole Singer, Fort River Teacher

- TBD, Facilities Director

- Dr. Michael Morris, Superintendent (ex-officio member)

We appreciate the range of experience and expertise represented in this group and look forward to working together on behalf of our schools.

Questions or comments for the School Committee can be emailed to: schoolcommittee@arps.org. Visit www.arps.org for posted meetings, agendas, and meeting minutes.

Phoebe Hazzard, Chair Anastasia Ordonez, Vice-Chair

Fort River Building Site/Feasibility Study 2nd Listening Session on September 11

Please join the Amherst School Committee and Interim Superintendent Dr. Michael Morris on September 11, 2017 at 6:00 PM in the Amherst Regional High School Library to share your ideas and learn more about The Fort River Building & Site Feasibility Study, School Building Committee.

In May 2017, Amherst Town Meeting appropriated funds to conduct a feasibility study about the Fort River Elementary School building and site. Please attend the listening sessions to learn more about the feasibility study process and the responsibilities of the School Building Committee (the body charged with overseeing the feasibility study), share your ideas about membership and public engagement, and ask your questions.

This will be the second session. The first session took place on Thursday August 8th, 2017 at 6:00 pm in the Town Room. The PGO is not hosting this event but rather is helping to promote it to the community. We hope to see you there!

Click here for the flyer in Spanish
Click here for the flyer in English

PGO Coffee with Special Guests Assistant Superintendent Michael Morris and Amherst School Committee Chair Katherine Appy on Friday, October 16

Please join us and your friends on Friday, October 16 at 9 am for coffee, donuts, and informative conversation! 

Assistant Superintendent Michael Morris and Amherst School Committee Chair Katherine Appy will discuss the Wildwood School Building Project and take questions.

The next community forums will be on Monday, October 26 in the High School Auditorium. The first will begin at 3:30 PM and the second at 7:00 PM. Two identical sessions will be held.

Monthly coffees will take place on or about the 15th of each month. The dates can be found on the PGO calendar which is on the right side of the blog home page. Some coffees will take place in the evening. There will usually be a presentation for families and specifics will be available on the blog, FB, and Twitter. Your infants, toddlers, and preschoolers are always welcome!

Please share with your friends and neighbors! Families with future Amherst Elementary school children are welcome to attend. We hope to see you there!