“Our goal in creating this new school facility was to create a place of community and learning for hundreds and thousands of Newtown, Sandy Hook students”, Llodra said.
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She added that it’s now up to the town’s adults “to commit that despite its birth from a frightful tragedy, that Sandy Hook school will be a place of laughter, love and learning”. Almost 400 students have enrolled at the school, which will teach students from preschool through fourth grade when it opens at the end of next month, the Wall Street Journal reports.
School Principal Kathy Gombos said that while the transition to the new school is expected to be emotionally trying, so far the teachers, parents, and students who have visited have been smiling.
While the school is reopening, the wounds and memories of the 2012 tragedy still remain.
Several victim’s family members, including family of one of the teacher’s slain, are now engaged in a lawsuit against the gun manufacturer whose weapons was used in the Sandy Hook shooting. While the new school was built, Llodra said nearby Monroe allowed Newtown to use its buildings for a temporary Sandy Hook School.
A sign, right, reads, “Sandy Hook Elementary 12.14.12 We’ll Always Remember”, in a classroom of the new Sandy Hook Elementary School, Friday, July 29, 2016, in Newtown, Conn. The public is getting its first look at the school which will replace the one torn down after a gunman entered it in December 2014 and killed 20 first graders and six educators. Once there, they’ll find 86,000 square feet of art-filled space with three courtyards, lots of windows (all bulletproof) and indoor nooks created to look like treehouses.
“Sandy Hook will have a quiet opening in September”, Superintendent Joseph Erardi tod the Connecticut TV station.
“From the very first day, we were aware of just how important it was to build the best possible building for the students and the Newtown community”. According to Time, the school is completely redesigned and contains no obvious memorials to the 26 people who died inside the old school in 2012.
Still, many would give anything to have the old building back.
The building was designed by New Haven-based Svigals + Partners Architects.
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About 35 returning students were in kindergarten at the time of the shooting and are now returning as fourth graders. This fall, the new building will be open for students once again.
