Newtown Plan: Tear Down School, Rebuild at Same Site

A task force of 28 local elected officials voted unanimously last night to tear down Sandy Hook Elementary School and build a new one on the same property. The plan now goes to the local school board and ultimately will have to be approved by residents of Newtown, Connecticut, at a referendum. The option emerged as a sort of middle ground between those who wanted to renovate the building where 20 first-graders and six educators were killed in December and those who wanted to tear it down and build a new school at a different location.

The 430 surviving students are now attending a renovated school renamed Sandy Hook Elementary School in the neighboring town of Monroe and are expected to remain there until a new school is built in Newtown. If all goes well, officials said construction could begin in the spring of next year and the new building could open in January 2016. (More Newtown, Connecticut stories.)