Post-Building Project

Presentation
APRIL 25, 2017
AMHERST SCHOOL COMMIT TEE

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 Dual Realities
All three of our elementary schools
have outstanding teachers and
students, exciting events and culture,
and diverse students learning
meaningful content
Two of our school buildings are in poor
physical condition and the district has
multiple enrollment issues; resolution
should occur as soon as possible to
maximize student learning
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 Educational vs. Political Challenges
EDUCATIONAL POLITICAL

Two school buildings have Pragmatic definition of as soon as possible

No permanent walls between classrooms in grades
1-6
Extremely limited (or a complete lack of) natural
light in many instructional spaces
Staff/community concerns about environmental
health
Insufficient HVAC systems, leading to wide
temperature variance depending on the season
Point of general agreement (research base and
local community): elementary schools of around
400 students are best for students1
1Lee,V. E., & Loeb, S. (2000). School size in Chicago elementary schools: Effects on teachers' attitudes and students' achievement. American
Educational Research Journal, 37(1), 3-31.

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Three sets of Post-vote challenges
Financial

Enrollment

Infrastructure

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 Financial
Given failed project, no energy or operational savings will naturally occur in next few years
Loss of grants: Kindergarten, Preschool (state) and potentially Title 2A (federal)
Deep concerns about state budget (FY19 and beyond)*
Due to reduction of state reimbursement of charter school costs budgets (see next slide for
charter reimbursement information) and the practice of the district reimbursing the Town for
Charter School Tuitions, less than 2% (realized) annual increases over past five years from the
Town of Amherst; has led to reduction of $866,768 (total) from level services
Central Office staffing cut by 24% over last 10 years (14% over past 2 years); few, if any,
additional reductions to be made outside of schools
Health Insurance Trust Fund increases

*For a summary of state budget information, please see: http://bit.ly/2pqJgXU; http://bit.ly/2lVqdiB; http://bit.ly/2pUA6Tv, http://bit.ly/2ojav6F

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 *

*Courtesy of
Mass Budget and
Policy Center:
http://bit.ly/23c
1quc
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Financial To-Decide List for School Committee
Item Short Term (next month) Medium Term (next Long-Term (next
few months) 6 months-2
years)

Decide whether (and how) to X

advocate for more than 2.0%
increases from the Town for
future budgets (not for FY18)
Decide whether (and how) to X
advocate for more Chapter 70 and
Charter Reimbursement revenue
from the state
Offer guidance on priorities for X
school-level budget reductions
for future years

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Enrollment
Special Education Programs

Enrollment Map Issues

Demographic Balance of Schools

Crocker Farm Enrollment

Space for K-6 students
Preschool

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Enrollment: Special Education Programs
Special Education Programs that require busing out of enrollment zones
22 students are bussed out of their enrollment zone (out of 36 total students in programs)
Building Blocks (13 students at Fort River)
AIMS (10 students at Fort River)
ILC (13 students at Wildwood)

Location of programs for educationally vulnerable student populations in schools

without permanent walls between classrooms & students walking through classrooms
to use restrooms
Siblings (without special needs) are not able to attend the same school as their
brother/sister in specialized programs
Determining school location when students no longer require services of program
continues to be a challenge

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Current Enrollment Map Issues

48 Students Total
88% Students of
Color
83% F/R Lunch

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 Enrollment: Current Rates of Poverty
Economically Disadvantaged Percentages (different from free-
reduced lunch1):
Crocker Farm 26.7% (up 2.2% from two years ago)2

Fort River: 37.2% (up 6.8% from two years ago) 2

Wildwood: 31.5% (up 3.6% from two years ago) 2

1http://www.doe.mass.edu/infoservices/data/ChangingMetric.pdf
2http://profiles.doe.mass.edu/

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Enrollment at Crocker Farm
Projected enrollments for next year

Grade Kinder Gr 1 Gr 2 Gr 3 Gr 4 Gr 5 Gr 6
Sections (3) 2 3 3 3 2 3
Students TBD 33 47 50 59 41 61
Issue #1: lack of space for Preschool Programs movement/intervention room (ongoing issue)
Issue #2: lack of space for additional section of Preschool (5 more students with IEPs than our max
capacity and 17 regular education students on this years waitlist; 15 regular education students were
on wait list last year)
Issue #3: if 3 Kindergarten classes for each of next few years, will run out of space in 2019-2020
school year or will have to increase class size to reduce sections (even without issues #1 and #2
resolved)

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Enrollment To-Decide List for School Committee
Item Short Term (next Medium Term (next few Long-Term (next 6
month) months) months-2 years)

Offer thoughts on specialized program bussing X

based on expansion of programs or
maintaining programs at current sites

Decide whether to ask administration to X X

develop redistricting maps and what criteria
should be for their development (for no
sooner than the 18-19 school year)
Decide whether to develop other systemic X X
models to address enrollment challenges,
such as making Fort River an in-district School
of Choice (potentially Spanish dual language
immersion)

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Infrastructure
Teacher survey and transfer request data

Wildwood and Fort River Building Concerns (with Images)

360 Student Options and Cost Estimates from Prior Project

Options for moving forward (both MBSA, mixed MSBA/Town, both Town)

FY18 Capital Requests

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Teachers Views of Wildwood and Fort
River
All data on following slides is from the 2014 TELL Survey that was completed by teachers in all
districts in the Commonwealth

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 % of Teachers who Agree that: The physical environment of
classrooms in this school supports teaching and learning

93%
100%
83%
90%

80%

70%

60%

50%

40%
24%
30%

9%
20%

10%

0%

MA Wildwood Fort River Crocker Farm

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 % of Teachers who agree that: "Teachers and staff work in a school
that is environmentally healthy":
87%

90%
72%
80%

70%

60%

50%

40%
25%
30%
18%

20%

10%

0%

MA Wildwood Fort River Crocker Farm

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Internal Teacher Transfer Requests
Over Past 7 Years:

14 teachers have requested transfers from Fort River and Wildwood

(to Crocker Farm or Pelham)

Only 1 teacher has requested a transfer from Crocker Farm to

Wildwood over the same period of time; none have requested a
transfer to Fort River

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School Safety
82 feet from front entry to main office (half the width of a
football field)
Before a visitor would reach main office to be greeted and sign
in, they must pass the main hallway and multiple instructional
spaces of teachers and students

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Acoustic Privacy/Walls/Lack of Natural
Light

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HVAC and Electrical Systems/Wildwood
Boiler

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Fort River Roof

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ADA Compliance Issues

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31
 Assumptions in Scenarios
50% MSBA reimbursement (not 51% as prior project given loss of CM-at Risk reimbursement as per revised MSBA Policy; does not
account for the change in reimbursement from Low-Income to Economically Disadvantaged that has recently occurred at would reduce
reimbursement by an additional 4%)
Additional reimbursement if renovation is chosen would likely be a wash with the costs of renting mobile classrooms during
construction period and abatement issues given students would be on site during renovation
Annual cost escalation of 3.5% (currently is about 4%)
$34-38 million per school cost for either renovation/new construction of 360 student elementary school(s)from the originally
estimated completion date of 2019 for these options (base for cost escalation from independent cost estimators for prior project: $34.7
to 38.6 million)
Estimates for construction or renovation at Wildwood would be identical for Fort River
Length of MSBA Feasibility Study(s) would be the same as prior project, non-MSBA would be 6 months shorter; construction would be
one year shorter than for prior project
Buildings would be LEED Silver (not Net Zero/Carbon Neutral)
No local surcharges are added to the costs (such as Percent for Art)
Two 360 student schools would be large enough to serve our future school enrollments (current enrollments are 410 at Wildwood and
333 at Fort River)
Interest rates would stay at their current (very low) levels
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Does not include any costs for capital work/maintenance in the interim period before buildings are renovated or rebuilt
New Construction Schematic (360 students)
(Cost estimate of $38.6 million by AM Fogerty)

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Current Fort River/Wildwood Floor Plan

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Renovation Initial Schematic, 360 students
(Cost estimate of $34.7 million by AM Fogerty)

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Option 1: Both Schools MSBA Process, Most Favorable Scenario

Summary of Cost Estimate/Timeline: $45-49.3 million for the town, both schools renovated or rebuilt by 2032
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Option 2: Both Schools MSBA Process, Less Favorable Scenario

Summary of Cost Estimate/Timeline: $48-54 million for the town, both schools renovated or rebuilt by 2036
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Option 3: Both Schools MSBA Process, Unfavorable Scenario

Summary of Cost Estimate/Timeline: $51-58 million for the town, both schools renovated or rebuilt by 2040
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Option 4: One MSBA, One Fully Town Funded (Most Favorable Scenario)*

*If the full

Feasibility
Study was
funded this
spring, the
first school
could be
completed
one year
earlier with
costs reduced
by 3.5%
($1.2-1.4
million)

Summary of Cost Estimate/Timeline: $58.6-65 million for the town, both schools renovated or rebuilt by 2024
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Option 5: One MSBA, One Fully Town Funded (Less Favorable Scenario)*

*If the full

Feasibility
Study was
funded this
spring, the
first school
could be
completed
one year
earlier with
costs
reduced by
3.5% ($1.2-
1.4 million)

Summary of Cost Estimate/Timeline: $60-66.5 million for the town, both schools renovated or rebuilt by 2026
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Option 6: One MSBA, One Fully Town Funded (Unfavorable Scenario)*

*If the full

Feasibility
Study was
funded this
spring, the
first school
could be
completed
one year
earlier with
costs reduced
by 3.5%
($1.2-1.4
million)

Summary of Cost Estimate/Timeline: $61-68 million for the town, both schools renovated or rebuilt by 2028
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Option 7: Both Town-Funded
Both schools could likely be completed for the 2023 school year
Costs would range from $76-85 million (total)

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FY18 Capital Requests
Wildwood
Exterior Doors ($25,000)
Parking Lot Lighting ($30,000)
Boiler Room Replacement ($500,000)
Environmental Health Assessment ($25,000)
Fort River
Roof (design only): ($70,000)
Environmental/Site/Building Analysis: ($115,000)
(original request was for $700,000 for full
feasibility study)
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Infrastructure To-Decide List for School Committee

Item Short Term (next month) Medium Term (next few Long-Term (next 6
months) months-2 years)

Share thoughts on capital plan X

request (full feasibility or
site/environmental/building analysis
only) for Town Meeting this spring
Offer guidance/thoughts on what as X X
soon as possible would indicate for
resolving infrastructure issues and
developing a path forward

Advocate for the path forward that X

the Committee agrees upon

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