Officials say even though the new Sandy Hook Elementary School building was born from tragedy, they want it to be a place of laughter and learning that inspires kindness.
Advertisement
The old Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newton, Connecticut, was demolished after a gunman shot 20 first-graders in December 2012.
A playground bench is colorfully decorated at the new Sandy Hook Elementary School, Friday, July 29, 2016, in Newtown, Conn.
One thing missing from the school is a memorial to the lives lost in the 2012 mass shooting.
The gymnasium of the newly constructed Sandy Hook Elementary School is unveiled by officials in Newtown, Connecticut, U.S. July 29, 2016.
The public will get its first glimpse of the CT school built to replace the one where 20 first-graders and six educators were massacred.
Almost four years after suffering one of the worst mass shootings in America, an elementary school in CT will re-open in a brand-new, high-tech building this autumn.
It 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. It cost $50 million, and is scheduled to open next month. Officials say it was created to be attractive, environmentally friendly, conducive to learning and, above all, safe.
The school hosted a media day Friday and showed the progress that has been made in its development. Of those, 70 were students at the old school.
The 86,800-square-foot facility was built on the site of the old school, which was torn down after the December 14, 2012, shooting attack.
The school will officially open to students and staff on August 29th and will serve students in pre-kindergarten through fourth grade.
Because of retirements and transfers, about 60 percent of the staff members from the original Sandy Hook are still with the school, he said.
The building consists of more than 25 classrooms with similar motifs and two treehouse spaces on the second floor bring the outdoors inside for the students.
“Our job was to listen”, said Julia McFadden, associate principal of Svigals + Partners, lead architects on the project. “Safety features were integrated, but not bluntly obvious”.
“It’s nice that the elementary school kids will come back home to Newtown”, Ms. Kuroski said.
The school also integrates many naturalistic features, part of the design team’s efforts to mitigate any fear or anxieties that may arise among teachers and students.
The school welcomes students with a “Be Kind” mosaic wall and “tree” bulletin boards, wall tile “tree trunks” and a mural of ducks that should remind students of the ones that used to gather at the old school.
Advertisement
Construction of the new school was completed in 2015. Foot bridges crossing a stone brook and garden give access to each of the school’s three entrances.
