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.