A task force in Newtown, Connecticut recommended unanimously that the Sandy Hook Elementary School where 20 children and six adults were killed in December be torn down. The panel said Friday night that a new school should be built on the site.
According to NBC Connecticut, there was a proposal to renovate the 60-year-old building, but that was rejected in favor of rebuilding from the ground up.
The New York Daily News reports that the local school board will vote on the task force’s recommendation and then a town referendum will be held.
“We came together as 28, and I hope we can come together as a community to rebuild the spirit of our community and build the school together,” Laura Roche, who was a member of the task force, said.
The school has been closed since the tragic Dec. 14 shooting that left 20 children and six adults dead. The shooter, Adam Lanza, killed himself. Three weeks after the shootings, the students began attending classes at a former middle school seven miles away.
Parents and other family members of the victims have been opposed to renovating and reopening the building. “I will chain my body to it and to protest if they try to re-open it,” Erica Lafferty told NBC Connecticut. Her mother was Dawn Hochsprung, the principal who died protecting students.
“Just tearing it down and building a new school in the same place is one of the solutions that would make the most sense," said Peter Caracciolo, whose child attended the school.
Offiicials say that a new school would cost between $47 million and $59 million to build.