Amethyst Brook Elementary School Opens

Amherst’s new Amethyst Brook Elementary School opened this fall, bringing together students from the former Fort River and Wildwood schools, as well as the still-operating Crocker Farm School. Construction on the K-5 school began in January 2025, and the project was completed on schedule, allowing the school to open in time for the 2026-2027 academic year.

According to the Daily Hampshire Gazette, the former Fort River School building is being demolished to make space for additional parking and playing fields for Amethyst Brook. The former Wildwood Elementary School is expected to be used for storage and potentially indoor sports activities for another year, although its long-term future remains undecided.

Amethyst Brook, which houses 550 children and is three stories tall, is a “state-of-the-art building,” said Principal Allison Estes, who formerly served as the principal of Wildwood. It has geothermal walls and solar panels, with each floor designated for different grade levels: kindergarten and first graders on the first floor, the second and third graders on the second floor, and the fourth and fifth graders on the third floor.

Combining the three school communities, Amethyst Brook preserves traditions from its predecessor schools — Fort River and Wildwood. One tradition that carried over was the Wildwood annual beginning-of-the-year parade, featuring the University of Massachusetts Amherst (UMass) Marching Band.

“We brought that tradition here to Amethyst Brook,” said Estes. “The UMass band was here, played for the kids, and taught us the Amethyst Brook cheer, which is a takeoff on the UMass cheer. That was a lovely event.”

The school adjusted some traditions to accommodate different family perspectives. According to Estes, for example, some parents do not want their kids to participate in Halloween activities, so Amethyst Brook chose not to continue the Fort River Halloween traditions. Instead, the school hosted its inaugural Trunk or Treat, a family-friendly fall festival featuring a costume parade, decorated car trunks, Halloween music and games, after the school day. 

Estes explained that holding the Trunk or Treat after school allows families to decide whether to participate without requiring their children to take part in activities that might conflict with their beliefs. “[It’s] something that families can support and know that their children do not have to participate in something that might violate their beliefs,” she said.

Inclusivity also shaped the school’s academic programming. Amethyst Brook is the first school in the district to offer all of its specialized programs, including Caminantes Dual Language program, the Building Blocks program for children with emotional disabilities, the ILC program for children with cognitive disabilities, and the AIMS program for children with Autism Spectrum Disorder.

“It’s a really unique endeavor to try to create a home for all these different types of needs, and I am very proud of Amherst for being strong enough to create a place [where] the goal is to have a truly inclusive community,” Estes said.

The school also features a fully accessible playground, allowing students in wheelchairs to access every part of the space, which was not possible before the consolidation.

According to Estes, the new building also gave the school an opportunity to rethink how it operates. “When you walk into most schools, they’ve been running certain systems for decades,” she said. “This is an opportunity for us to build things from the ground up and to create systems that are truly responsive to the people who are here in this building today.”