After considering whether to build a new school far from the site where 26 students and staff members were killed by a gunman Dec. 14, and the possibility of having students return to a renovated Sandy Hook Elementary School, a task force has voted to tear down and rebuild the Newtown, Conn., school.
The 28-member panel’s decision, Reuters reported, has to be approved by the Newtown school board, and then the town will have to vote on spending an estimated $56 million on a new school.
Meanwhile, Sandy Hook’s 450 kindergarten through 4th grade students will keep attending classes at a converted Chalk Hill Middle School in nearby Monroe, Conn.
If voters approve a new school—they recently rejected increases to the town and school district budget that would have paid for police officers at district schools—it would take about two years to design and build.
But the town may not have to pay the full cost of the project. Connecticut has agreed to pay some of the cost of building a new school.
