Friday, April 4, 2014

Expensive Renovation Plans


Wildwood Elementary School, Amherst

Considering the school disarray just over the past two months -- black on white racial bullying, endless "lockdowns," and racist graffiti left in rest rooms -- it's probably not the best of times for Amherst Town Meeting to discuss a BIG ticket item like elementary school renovation/expansion.

Occasionally Town Meeting can put aside emotion, but it still may be a tough sell considering the declining school age population in Amherst, where high property tax rates and recent problems in the schools could be causing a bit of an exodus of families with school aged children.

 APD @ ARHS school lockdown April 2nd

Article #17, although it doesn't give a dollar amount, would authorize the expenditure of $1 million for a Wildwood "school feasibility study"-- 60% of which would be covered by a state grant courtesy of the Massachusetts School Building Authority (who gets their funding via 1% of the state sales tax).

The comprehensive study will analyze the costs for a major renovation of the aging, circa 1970,  school -- but could also conclude demolition is in order.  The study would also look at whether Amherst will even need three elementary schools in the future.

The $400,000 town portion of the project is already funded so to speak.  Last year Town Meeting approved that amount via borrowing to replace the original boilers at Wildwood, which have had a hard time producing hot water.  The boilers have not yet been replaced but if the school is to be renovated at mostly state expense it makes sense to roll that replacement into the major renovation. 

Article #18 would redirect that previous $400,000 appropriation to funding the feasibility study.

 East Street School.  Just front ramp to entryway will cost $100K

Town Meeting will also vote under article #16 to spend $700,000 to rehab the East Street School which has been abandoned for a few years.  Facilities Director Ron Bohonowitcz told the Joint Capital Planning Committee that just to make it handicapped accessible will cost $100,000.

The plan is to move Leisure Services and Supplemental Education (Rec Dept) out of the Bangs Community Center into the newly renovated brick building, although LSSE does not seem overly enthused about the idea.


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37 comments:

Anonymous said...

Expand an elementary school? With what children to occupy it?

Larry Kelley said...

And I just now noticed the Select Board will be signing approval on Monday night for the start of the renovation process with Fort River Elementary School.

Maybe the idea is to expand/renovate the two schools and then shut down Crocker Farm (although we put millions into a renovation/expansion 12 years ago).

Anonymous said...

Might it be cheaper to build one really big new state of the art school that will fit everybody and have expanded pre-school space? Then renovating 2 smaller out of date schools?

Larry Kelley said...

I think the $1 million study that's going to happen soon will probably consider that scenario.

Anonymous said...

$1 Million to study making the change. That seems insanely high. Will they do some reno for that money? If not this seems like the mother of all wasteful spending.

Larry Kelley said...

No, that doesn't get you any actual construction. But a set of blueprints for sure.

Anonymous said...

Cut the hyperbole, what is the total enrollment as compared to 5 years ago?

Larry Kelley said...

According to the Annual Report of the Amherst Schools FY2011:

"Enrollment in the Amherst elementary schools has declined annually for the past five years dropping from 1,396 in 2006 to 1,186 in 2011."

Anonymous said...

How about spend all that money to renovate the Central Fire Station? It is in way worse shape than any school and the building is becoming unfit for occupation and use.

Anonymous said...

Maybe a newly built school could have a security system that makes logical sense. Oh wait that would require the people in charge to think with something called intelligence.

Anonymous said...

Hey, let's dig a big moat around every school and stock it with Piranhas, even if we do have to pay an astronomical cost to keep the moats heated to tropical temperatures all winter.

We'll protect our children form -- well, we don't really know what but if we can assure that all the child molesters are wearing a Maria-issued ID, then our kids will be safe...

So what if they aren't learning anything....

Anonymous said...

How about selling the unwanted building and letting someone fix at his own expense and then pay taxes on it?

Anonymous said...

Anon 9:46

Now that is a great idea!

Anonymous said...

The elementary school enrollment for Amherst was 1,210, as of October 2013. This is higher than projected. The overall enrollment projections, presented in the FY2015 budget docs and elsewhere show the K-6 enrollment declining over time, and enrollment of Amherst children in charter schools increasing.

Anonymous said...

Boy that town(Amherst), knows how to spent your tax money.

Anonymous said...

Just think, with bigger, more modern buildings you'll need even more administrators to help save energy, monitor all the staff, and feed the Piranhas in the moat that protects the children from great mysteries and fear. They can even fill the moat with urine so that any drug addict that needs a sample won't have to be buzzed into a school so easily with a $150,000 system that clearly protects the schools from nothing. Did you know the schools changed light bulbs recently and are now saving upwards of $400 a year. That means in 250 years they will have saved enough for yet another $100k administrator. Now we're saving.

Anonymous said...

$1million study!!! $1million spent without any improvements???? What a waste of state and town money.

Anonymous said...


why not tear down wildwood, build a much bigger school that can house wildwood and fort river, reduce administration, heating and maintenance costs. then tear down fort river and build some decent playing fields that don't continuously flood, so all the kids and teams that want to play have somewhere to play.instead of a study, talk to the many smart people in our community.

Walter Graff said...

"instead of a study, talk to the many smart people in our community."

Now that's dumb. Why would the town want to do what every other town would do. Don't you know, kicking up dust and making it look like all kinds of busy work is Amherst claim to fame. Sort of the pig pen of towns in Mass. You'll find many intelligent people in Amherst but not much intelligence. But then again that's what you get when the population votes for a town committee over a mayor. No one is accountable and no one has to be.

Anonymous said...

To all the posters who suggest building one new bigger school: If I remember correctly, research indicates that smaller schools provide a better educational environment. Yes, there can be cost savings with larger schools in terms of dollars, but there is also a negative educational experience cost to the students. Larger schools make it harder to provide community, etc. particularly with young children.

Anonymous said...

Larger schools make it harder to provide community, etc. particularly with young children.

I can't help but think that these ongoing lockdowns tend to be a bit more traumatic to said young children...

Nightmares about being eaten by Piranhas and such notwithstanding...

Anonymous said...

Like everyone else, I hate the idea of "wasting" tax payer money. However, Wildwood and Fort River have not aged well at all. Both have quite a few problems, some of which are major. Poor air quality, mold, open classrooms that are noisy, built in furniture that is falling apart. There are cracks in the cinder-block walls. And, one of the schools has leaky ceilings every time it rains - the ceiling tiles are soggy, stained, and require replacement many times a year. Classrooms are cold in the winter and hot in the late spring, early summer. Wasn't Fort River built on a swamp? If not replaced, both schools are getting to the point of requiring some major renovations.

Anonymous said...

I hope our schools don't go the way of the TSA and airport security. Lots of money spent on "security" most of which are illusions. What foolishness. Just don't give them the money, I find it hard to believe they could find it in their current budgets are they are always moaning about cuts hitting the bone.

Anonymous said...

So lets see, how is this going to go down. Some lively debate at town meeting ultimately ending in a yes vote, because after all it is for kids and education.

Some "consultants" will be hired after months of debate about which one to hire. Possibly someone's friend, which the general public will never know.

The existing schools will be looked at over and over. It will be determined that upgrades are just a band aid on a bigger problem that is the design deficiency both of buildings. The buildings are simply to far gone to let our kids spend another day in.

We will be told we need not one but two new buildings to keep the overall enrollment down around 400 per school. The data shows that small schools are better at the K-6 level after all.

Plans will be drawn up, the community will be involved, much debate will be had about the best new designs based on research.

The consultants and the administration will, over time convince the town that bonding a two school 50 Million dollar budget is necessary for the future of education in Amherst.

In the end Amherst will have two new shiny schools like beautiful red apples for the teachers.

Only problem is that the center of these apples will have rot from the beginning which is the curriculum of Amherst, coupled with the political correctness, ed speak, and social justice dogma that has plagued them for years.

The big difference in the end is that your taxes will have gone up massively and you will have the same problems and mediocrity you have had for years.

There could be a silver lining though. If they don't screw up the design the floors might stay dry on hot humid days.

Good luck Amherst. Hold on to your purses and wallets. The biggest sucking sound you have ever heard is coming to town.

Walter Graff said...

"Only problem is that the center of these apples will have rot from the beginning which is the curriculum of Amherst, coupled with the political correctness, ed speak, and social justice dogma that has plagued them for years."

Bravo!!!

Amherst fails our students in so many ways.

Let's start at the top with a superintendent that has no qualification to run the school system and was put in the position for being friends of a friend.

She is so inept that she presents her three principal choices for a school position for public review recently after her extensive review and assessment only to find out after-the-fact that one of the picks was arrested on Hazard Ave in Enfield Ct at 1:30am for driving on the wrong side of the road drunk as a skunk when she was head of a school in South Windsor.

Getting rid of Maria Geryk will certainly not eliminate the bullshit social justice dogma that has blown up in the face of Amherst like an IUD placed over a cesspool, nor the special interest in programs that prevent our children from getting a quality education, nor the political agenda that prevents anything from moving forward in the education department of Amherst, but it is certainly a start that cuts out a big part of the cancer that is the Amherst school system.

Getting rid of Maria Geryk would at least allow the school board to breath after being forced to pull their heads out of her ass, but that of course is the next problem.

But then again the government of Hampster (the best Annagram for the town where the 'H' still remains silent) is rotting from the core so to say the issues that plague Hampster are huge is an understatement.

But then again a slightly larger percentage the populous of Hampster allows the government to be nameless and have no real accountability so Hampster spins in it's wheel in perpetuity with the illusion of travel forward but the reality of constant inaction not unlike the cursorial organism to which the 'H' is pronounced.

What many don't know is that in Amherst the 'H' is silent because when describing any of the decisions made by the town it is usually follow by the statement- Jesus H Christ what are they doing!


Anonymous said...

Anon 5:38 you hit the nail on the head. When the override talk begins it will quickly grow into a deafening howl.

Anonymous said...

Says Walter (11:36) from his Sunderland home as he prepare to drive his school choice kids to Amherst on Monday. Reminds me of complaint about democracy-- something like , "democracy is a terrible form of government but there are none better." The charters have their own problems (talk about lock down? And math curriculum issues?) and if you think private school costs means they have all the complexity of teaching and learning solved, I have some great land to sell you. Funny there is only fuzzy glassy eyed idealism talk of the charters and privates schools here, and nit picky mean spirited attacks on the locals. Reminds of another saying.. Any jackass can kick down a barn but takes a carpenter to build one.
If Larry wants to be the journalist he claims to be he should be objective and expose problems at the charters and do pieces that encourage talk about concert solutions to the real and tangled problems of racism, school security, curriculum, sick buildings etc.

Instead of complaining about the people trying to untie theses knots, why not lend a hand. It does mean you will have to step way from the computer.

Anonymous said...

Walter,

That last sentence in your 11:36 post, was priceless. thanks.

Anonymous said...

Strange how the uninformed think that because someone has a mailing address outside of Amherst that they somehow are involved in school choice. Then look at how the assumptions become completely ignorant as a result and a rant about the schools that are stealing all of Amherst population ensues.

Anonymous said...

anon@945: I suspect few parents/guardians have the stamina to be "involved". It is clear that past (heroic) efforts have failed. Even the SC is chastised for stepping over the line in criticizing the Admin. Meanwhile we have this year alone, 3 of 5 principals leaving, only those that started before this SI have stayed. What does this mean? Do other districts have the same rapid turnover? Are other districts investing heavily in "security" measures? Meanwhile the MS continues to struggle and offers no intervention for struggling students- programs put in place covertly disappear without warning or announcement (and parents and guardians are lead to believe they are still in place) due to lack of 'resources". Huh? We have resources for hundreds of thousands of dollars in security but not for our struggling students?

Anonymous said...

I can't even begin to understand what Anon 1027 is saying. What a completely indecipherable post.

Dr. Ed said...

I'm working on something that will steal the college kids from UM. Fun times will ensure if I am successful....

Anonymous said...

Oh yea I can see it now. All the USA kids following Ed as though he were the Pied Piper. Someone needs to adjust his meds.

Anonymous said...

Damn phone...USA was supposed to be UMASS! :)

Dr. Ed said...

All the UMass kids following Ed as though he were the Pied Piper.

I hadn't thought of it that way --- although I would argue that it is UMass who is the Pied Piper -- and that Sirens would be a better analogy.

But hey, call me mad, if I can get $5/$10 from each kid, I'd be cackling all the way to the bank... Living well is a good revenge, concurrently driving your enemies into bankruptcy an even better one...

Anonymous said...

Shit, hes back. There goes my donation.

Anonymous said...

I have to wonder if a couple $300 electric hot water heaters -- one for the boy's bathroom and one for the girls' -- wouldn't solve the hot water issue a whole lot cheaper & easier than replacing the entire boiler.

These are children washing their hands, not filling bathtubs, how much hot water are they going to need? How much can they possibly use???

What you do is use these heaters as boosters -- have the existing domestic hot water line as the cold inlet of the heater and you thus only pay to heat the water above what the boiler has already heated it to.