It’s summer. For many of us, that means fresh corn from the farmstand, Little League baseball playoffs, and watching fireflies off the back porch. But for Victor, the head custodian at Fort River Elementary School in Amherst, summer means something entirely different.

Summer is the season when Victor and the other school custodians and facilities managers at Fort River and Wildwood elementary schools pull out their duct tape, their packets of rodent control and their punch list of building improvements, and heroically MacGyver our elementary schools together in a valiant effort to keep flawed and failing structures meeting the basic function of housing our kids for another academic year.

That MacGyvering can mean many things. Sometimes their job is spending hours scouring Ebay to find a used boiler part. The school’s heating equipment is so outdated, the manufacturers no longer sell the parts. Sometimes it’s just keeping the mice who live in the walls at bay, so they don’t reach crisis-level by the time kids return to classrooms.

Hopefully, all the time and resources spent cobbling together outdated, flawed and inefficient buildings may soon be over.

After many years of work, the Amherst School Committee, School Building Committee, district superintendent, and many others have developed a plan to design and pay for a new school building to replace buildings that are beyond the end of their useful life.

That plan is now beginning to take shape.

After exploring different sites and considering whether to renovate existing structures or build new, Amherst’s School Building Committee decided the best option is to replace Fort River and Wildwood elementary schools with a new three-story building at the current Fort River site off South East Street. This new school would house 575 students, and together with Crocker Farm Elementary School in South Amherst, would educate Amherst’s kids from kindergarten until fifth grade.

The need for this new school is great. In 2014, the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education surveyed 38,000 educators in the state about the conditions of their schools. When asked whether “the physical environment of classrooms supports teaching and learning” 83% of teachers statewide agreed with the statement. Only 8% of teachers at Fort River elementary did and less than a quarter of Wildwood teachers did.

If approved, our new school would be highly energy-efficient, be fully accessible and compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), and have 21st century classrooms with ample natural light. The annual operating costs are expected to be significantly lower than continuing to operate Wildwood and Fort River.

To make Amherst’s new elementary school a reality, at least two thirds of Amherst’s town council needs to approve borrowing the money to build the new school and at least 51% of voters in town need to support a debt exclusion override to temporarily increase property taxes. If we clear those hurdles, Amherst will receive tens of millions of dollars in state matching funds from the Massachusetts School Building Authority (MSBA) to help cover the cost of the new school.

This project is our town’s second — and likely last chance — to build a new school with state aid. But even with tens of millions of dollars of state matching funds, passing a town-wide debt exclusion will not be easy.

Construction costs are rising and incomes aren’t keeping pace. Amherst already had relatively high property taxes and our new elementary school will likely be the most expensive capital project the town has ever undertaken.

Yet, doing nothing is not an option. If Amherst fails to approve this project, we forfeit state matching funds for a second time and will continue to send good money after bad, hemorrhaging operating operating expenses MacGyvering two failing buildings until one or both eventually fails. At that point, the town would be on the hook for the entire cost of a new school building. That’s why, even with a price tag likely to exceed $100 million, the tens of millions in state matching funds make this investment in one efficient new elementary school building to replace two flawed and failing buildings the fiscally responsible choice.

If history tells us anything, winning a new school for our kids and generations to come won’t happen on its own. It will require a concerted effort to overcome inertia, misinformation, and opposition to educate voters about why a new efficient elementary school is an investment worth making. That’s why I’m writing today.

If you live in Amherst and have children of elementary school age, please educate yourself about the project by visiting www.amherst-school-project.com. And if you’re interested in getting involved in the campaign, please email amherstforward@gmail.com.

Although today you may be enjoying the glimmer of nighttime fireflies or the sounds of summer baseball, our kids will be getting back on the school bus before we know it. Now is the time to learn more about this school building project, and if, like me, you’re convinced that it’s an investment worth making and you plan to vote yes for a new school next spring, I ask you to join me on the the campaign this fall to educate your neighbors and mobilize support for Amherst’s new elementary school.

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