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Construction To Begin This Summer On New Newtown Elementary School

NEWTOWN, Conn. (CBSNewYork) - Construction is to begin this summer on a new elementary school in Newtown, Connecticut.

As WCBS 880 Connecticut Bureau Chief Fran Schneidau reported, the new school will be built on the same site as the former Sandy Hook Elementary School.

Construction To Begin This Summer On New Newtown Elementary School

The project's architect said the new school will be built much closer to the natural setting of the acreage.

"The old school's been taken down and we have moved the school to another part of the site in order to take advantage, actually, of the woods and the particular attributes that the site offers," architect Barry Svigals of Svigals + Partners told Schneidau. "By moving the school into those woods and the inspiration of making little treehouses at the ends of the classrooms where the children might collaborate and relate to their natural environment, these were important features of the school."

Svigals said the school will feature lots of natural light and surround the children with nature.

Groundbreaking begins this summer and the plan is to open the school in the fall of 2016.

The old school was torn down following the Dec. 2012 massacre that left 20 first graders and six educators dead.

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