New Sandy Hook School to occupy old site Newtown tragedy: After emotional debate, panel decides to replace facility where 26 people were killed Dec. 14

NEWTOWN -- The Sandy Hook Task Force voted unanimously Friday night to build a new Sandy Hook Elementary School on the site of the old one, which has been closed since the massacre of 20 first-grade students and six educators there on Dec. 14.

After an often-wrenching debate, the 28 members of the panel agreed that the existing school site would be the best place to build a new school -- both logistically and spiritually. At the end of the deliberations, the standing-room-only crowd at the Municipal Center broke into applause, as if to thank the task force for its work.

First Selectman Pat Llodra said after the vote that if all goes as planned, the town could break ground on the new school -- expected to cost between $42 million and $47 million -- in the spring of 2014. Its projected opening would be in 2016.

Until then, students from Sandy Hook are expected to continue to go to the former Chalk Hill Middle School in Monroe.

Parent Steven Uhde spoke for many at the meeting when he said building a new school on the site would take on the bitter legacy left by the Sandy Hook shooter, Adam Lanza, and transform it.

"He didn't hate those people -- he didn't even know them," Uhde said. "It was an attack on the school."

Building a new school there, Uhde said, would exemplify the town's message: "We choose love."

Mergim Bajraliu -- a Newtown High School student and brother of a Sandy Hook Elementary School fourth-grader -- told the task force that his preference would be to keep and renovate the old school.

"But I do see hope in going back to the Sandy Hook site," Bajraliu said of the new school plan.

Friday's debate centered on two sites -- the existing school location on Riverside Road and nearby athletic fields, also on Riverside.

Task force members said the problem with the athletic field site was that it is owned by a corporation that no longer exists. The town would have to claim the land through eminent domain -- a legal process that could take months.

For that reason, the task force grew increasingly apprehensive about using the site, fearing lengthy litigation.

"Nothing is easy, legally,'' town resident Mike Scarpa told the committee.

However, the committee acknowledged that returning to the site of the Sandy Hook shootings, even in a new school with a new access road, could be hard on some teachers, parents and students.

"No matter what we do, it will hurt people,'' said task force member Laura Roche, who spoke emotionally after her recent visit to the Sandy Hook Firehouse -- the first time she'd been there since Dec. 14.

The idea of building on the existing site is easier for the town because it already owns the land. But the project will require the razing of the existing school -- something that would not be needed to build at another site.

Llodra said the task force recommendation will go to the Board of Education and also to the state Legislature, so work can begin to get funding for the new school. The town hopes that state and federal funds will pay for the new building entirely.

Parent Dan Krauss said speed is of the essence. His daughter likes the Chalk Hill school and appreciates the town of Monroe's generosity -- "But it's not her school,'' he said. "She misses her school.''