By Kevin Ostrowski
AMHERST — Nearly a year after voters approved it, the Sweet Home Central School District’s $90.5 million building project has a start date, and families who want to see what is coming have a chance to ask about it Tuesday night, Nov. 17.
Construction is scheduled to begin in May 2027 at Maplemere Elementary, where a six-classroom addition and a new parking lot north of the building make up the first phase, according to a district update on the Maplemere work. The Board of Education will hold its Nov. 17 meeting at Maplemere at 6 p.m., with a capital project open forum on the agenda.
Superintendent Michael Ginestre previewed the work in a column published Nov. 5 in the Amherst Bee.
“We will start this spring at Maplemere, where the first phase of work will include a six-classroom addition and additional parking to the north of the building,” Ginestre wrote. “These improvements will help us address our space needs while creating an environment that supports student learning and success.”
What voters approved
Sweet Home residents passed both halves of the project on Dec. 16, 2025, according to the district’s capital project page. Proposition 1, the $55.2 million core of the plan, passed 542 to 172. Proposition 2, a $35.3 million package of renovations and athletic upgrades, passed 472 to 249. That is roughly 720 votes in a district that spans parts of Amherst and Tonawanda.
The district has described Proposition 1 as tax-neutral. It adds 10 classrooms: six at Maplemere and two each at Heritage Heights and Glendale elementary schools. Proposition 2 covers renovations of elementary classrooms, hallways and gyms, an electronic lock system on interior doors, new turf at the high school athletic complex and new lighted turf baseball and softball fields. The district put the cost of Proposition 2 at a one-time increase of $64 for the average home assessed at $250,000.
Ahead of the vote, Ginestre told the Amherst Bee that the project was paid for with state aid, debt from a 2004 project coming off the books and $3 million in capital reserves, which is why the first proposition did not raise taxes.
“This project is transformational for our district because it is rare in New York to see schools adding space. Our enrollment is going up, which is also not common in New York,” Ginestre said at the time.
“It was very important to us that we didn’t want to make this super heavy on the tax payers,” he said.
A start date that has moved a little
The first shovels have been penciled in for slightly different months as planning went on. The Bee reported in December 2025 that work would likely begin in summer 2027. In an April column, Ginestre gave a firmer target.
“We anticipate shovels in the ground at Maplemere in April 2027, with work on the athletic fields beginning shortly thereafter in June 2027,” he wrote. The district’s current Maplemere update lists May 2027.
The changes are small, and the April column noted that the project still has to clear the state Education Department’s approval process before construction begins. District materials reviewed by The Buffalo Chronicle do not say whether that approval has been granted.
Five years of work at one school
The Maplemere schedule shows how long the work will touch a single building. The addition is scheduled to run from May 2027 to August 2028. A later phase, listed as January 2030 to November 2031, would renovate the library, classrooms, corridors and gym, upgrade the playground with pre-K and adaptive equipment, replace the cooling system, repave the front loop, install wireless door locks and add a restroom in the 100 wing.
Planning has leaned on the people who use the buildings, Ginestre wrote. Maplemere teachers have helped plan the details of the construction, and the district worked with its architects, Young + Wright, on the addition’s layout. Before the vote, the district said 756 people took part in an online survey and focus groups, sharing 635 ideas.
Questions for Nov. 17
Ginestre framed the open forum as a chance for families to get answers.
“We want our families, staff, and community members to understand what is planned, ask questions, and learn more about what these improvements will mean for Maplemere,” he wrote.
Parents may want to ask how the school will run during more than a year of construction beside occupied classrooms, whether construction bids have come in within the $90.5 million budget, and how current enrollment compares with the growth the district cited when it asked for the new space. Neither the column nor the district’s project page answers those questions.
The forum is the second public session this month. Maplemere’s PTA discussed the project timeline on Nov. 2. Elsewhere on Sweet Home Road, a separate preschool expansion is also underway: Summit Center bought a building there to shrink its waiting list, as The Buffalo Chronicle reported Nov. 11.
The Buffalo Chronicle is asking the district about the state approval and bidding timeline and will update this story with any response.
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