The school built to replace the original building where 20 first-graders and six educators were killed is set to open to the media Friday in Newton, Connecticut.
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Among the unique features of the new school are a pair of tree house spaces, breakout spaces nestled at the corner of the building that give an overhead view of the nearby forest.
“Let me state unequivocally that we would trade in a minute this lovely new school for the more familiar and ancient Sandy Hook school, built in the ’50s, if we could just change the past”, he said.
On Friday, the public got a glimpse of the new school.
Local officials hope allowing people to take a look this week will make for a “quiet, respectful, and appropriate opening” on August 29, Superintendent Joseph Erardi said.
Poignantly, the design also includes a tile mural of ducks, recalling the ducks that used to gather at the old school, along with the words, “Be kind”. He has aged out of the prekindergarten-to-fourth-grade school but wanted to see the replacement for his old school.
“I believe that Newtown remains a school district in rebuild”, Erardi said. “It was done so respectfully and so tastefully”. The windows are impact resistant and there is a state-of-the art camera system ministering the halls at all times.
In addition, the ground floor was built slightly elevated, making it hard for possible perpetrators to see inside classrooms. All the doors and windows are bulletproof.
“As architects, we aspire to opportunities like this: to be involved in the design of a building like the Sandy Hook School, a meaningful and symbolic building that truly serves a community on so many levels, today and for generations to come”, said Jay Brotman, Managing Partner at Svigals + Partners Architects. Of the 390 children enrolled for the upcoming year, 70 incoming fourth graders were students at the old school at the time of the shooting.
A media tour will precede a public open house on Friday. Selectman Pat Llodra says Shelley has been with Sandy Hook Elementary for over a decade.
Principal Dr. Kathy Gombos said the kids are their top priority. This fall, the new building will be open for students once again.
In one classroom, a refrigerator magnet reads “We are Newtown, we choose love”.
Although the school has received national attention, Superintendent Joseph Erardi said he wants the school’s opening to be peaceful.
“I’m going to pass on answering that because it involves the conversations I’ve had with the impacted families and those will always remain confidential”, he said.
The nature-themed, two-story school takes after what the community is most familiar with, Newtown’s green scenery.
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The new school will not have a prominent memorial to the Sandy Hook victims, and Erardi declined to say whether they will be remembered in some other way.
