Newtown panel: Tear down Sandy Hook, rebuild

AP

NEWTOWN, Conn. (AP) — Newtown parents Steven Uhde and Peter Barresi didn't want the town to abandon the elementary school property where 20 first-graders and six educators were killed in December and build a new school elsewhere, saying that would be like letting the gunman win.

So they were glad Friday night when a task force of 28 local elected officials voted unanimously for a plan calling for tearing down Sandy Hook Elementary School and constructing a new building on the same property.

The plan approved by the Sandy Hook School Building Task Force now goes to the local school board and ultimately will have to be approved by residents at a referendum.

If all goes well, officials said construction could begin in the spring of next year and the new building could open in January 2016.

The 430 surviving students are attending a renovated school renamed Sandy Hook Elementary School in the neighboring town of Monroe.