Bittersweet opening of a brand new Sandy Hook
Building stands on original Newtown property where gunman killed 26 people
NEWTOWN, CONN.— After three-anda-half years of grieving the unspeakable tragedy that unfolded at Sandy Hook Elementary School in late 2012, students and parents will return to a new school building this fall that is intended to heal and protect, as well as educate.
At a preview of the school on Friday, there were mixed emotions amid the striking design elements and lavish landscaping. Lisabeth Kuroski, a special education aide at Reed Intermediate School, called the school’s reopening bittersweet.
“It’s nice that the elementary school kids will come back home to Newtown,” Kuroski said. “But it’s also a sad day, because you can’t be here at the opening of the school without thinking of the people we lost.”
Officials unveiled the new Sandy Hook Elementary School to give reporters a preview now in the hope that students can experience the building without the glare of media scrutiny when school starts in September.
“The transition to the new school needs to be as seamless as possible for the children,” said Joseph V. Erardi Jr., the superintendent of Newtown schools.
“That is why we are setting up this day, and therefore, asking everyone to give us the space we need to allow high-quality teaching and learning when we return for our first day of school.”
After the rampage that left 20 children and six staff members dead in 2012, the students moved into a temporary school building in nearby Monroe. School officials there offered a shuttered building, since the old Sandy Hook school was a crime scene.
The school district decided to demolish the old building, and with it the horrific images of what had happened there. Ultimately, after dozens of meetings, officials decided to build a new school on the same property, but using a different footprint.
The 59 surviving first-graders from Sandy Hook, some of whom watched in horror as their teachers and friends were killed in their classroom, will not return to the new building. That class, which had 79 students when the attack occurred, is moving up to fifth grade at Reed Intermediate School.
Among the students to arrive this fall at the new elementary school, only the incoming fourth-graders were present on Dec. 14, 2012, as kindergartners, when a disturbed young man, Adam Lanza, blasted his way into the school.
The new Sandy Hook school looks as different from the former flatroofed1956 brick structure as can be. The front of the new structure is covered with wood, which seems to roll in waves.
There is no formal memorial to the shootings. One second-grade class- room is brightly decorated with books, baskets and new desks and diminutive blue chairs. Almost out of sight, on the side of the refrigerator, is a ribbon magnet that says “Sandy Hook Elementary 12-14-12: We will never forget.”
The state of Connecticut offered the district $50 million (U.S.) for the new school, and residents voted overwhelmingly to accept the money.
The new school, which will serve just under 400 students in prekindergarten through fourth grade, draws its inspiration from nature, echoing the wooded, rolling landscape of Newtown itself. The entrance is tucked into a stand of trees, while three footbridges cross water on the property.
But security was also a chief concern in the design — without being too obvious, there are safety measures everywhere.
Every classroom can be easily secured, and side windows adjacent to classroom doors are bullet-resistant. The interior walls were also reinforced. Outside the building, a bioswale that abuts the building is designed to absorb stormwater runoff with native plantings, but it also serves another purpose: keeping people away from the school.