Six years later, the numbers tell a different story about the site, and though they will never and should never eclipse what occurred there, they point to a future that is inherently safer and hopefully happier.

Debuted in time for the 2016-17 school year, the new, 86,800-square-foot Sandy Hook Elementary School accommodates about 450 students from kindergarten through fourth grade. It was two years in the making, following an intensive process on the part of stakeholders, including Svigals + Partners, the New Haven, Conn., firm that designed the new facility under the direction of Managing Partner Jay Brotman, AIA.

“We recognized immediately the importance of an inclusive and open design process,” said Brotman. “Before even the first drawing, we met with community officials and families to hear their concerns, to listen to what they wanted from a new school, to discover what was important to the people there about their town and to hear from them what the original elementary school meant to them.”

In the end, Brotman said his team became intimately involved with the people of Newton and as a consequence, “became very protective of them.”

From the get-go, the firm committed to an inclusive and collaborative process, which included a committee composed of Sandy Hook Elementary School teachers and staff, parents, Newtown School District staff, members of the Board of Education, town staff, community representatives and the design/construction team at its core. This body coalesced as the School Based Building Advisory Committee (SBBAC), and its involvement continued into the construction phase, said Brotman.

“We believed — rightly, I think — this would be the only way to design a school building and campus that would stand as an expression of the needs, aspirations and spirit of Newtown, Sandy Hook in particular,” said Brotman. “Schools must provide a nurturing, welcoming and healthy environment for children to learn, and they must support community activities of all kinds. In order to fulfill this dual mission, our design solutions addressing safety and security had to be seamlessly integrated into an architectural aesthetic that says, ‘Welcome, come on in and join us,’” said Brotman.

To wit, the safety measures were implemented in a manner that rendered them essentially invisible.

“For Sandy Hook Elementary School, we explored how to prevent intruders from gaining access to the building, starting with a campus plan that delineates the separation from the street and surrounding areas while directing traffic flow strategically so that potential threats may be detected early,” Brotman explained. “We also located active public areas near the front of the building towards the arrival area so that they could easily observe approaching visitors and report any unwanted activities.”

Other strategies, according to Brotman, focused on delaying a potential intruder’s progress by locating the classrooms such that they were remote from any likely points of entry. Locks and automatic doors were also engineered to impede progress, and the landscaping was designed to be eco-friendly while driving visitors toward “preferred points of entry.” The surrounding landscape also informed the design as Brotman and his team actively integrated the school into the environment.

“The local ecology and geography of the area are important to the community’s identity. Our team worked to weave inspiration from the site and its surroundings into the design, establishing physical and symbolic connections with nature, in a way that would help organize the site to address security, vehicular access, pedestrian connections and so forth,” said Brotman.

Among the safety features incorporated into the project are impact-resistant laminated glazing on a variety of strategic spots throughout the building as well as hardened interior walls and doors. The hardware on classroom doors is engineered to automatically deadbolt upon closing.

“The school building also includes a number of technological strategies such as security cameras and lighting that are motion-sensitive. But the true strength of the design is in the planning, landscaping and layout that increase the available reaction time for identifying and responding to potential intruders,” said Brotman.

To read the entire article, check out the May/June issue of School Construction News.

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The federal pre-K education program, which serves low-income families throughout the United States, will take a 5.27 percent hit amounting to 18,000 Head Start staff either losing employment or facing salary cuts. Head Start advocates have said that the depletion in funds, approximately $405 million, has far reaching impacts on the development of at-risk children and their families.

Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius has called for community action against the cuts.

“For many young children in this country, the road to a better life begins when they enter a high-quality early-learning program like Head Start,” she said in a statement. “When they do, we all benefit because they are better prepared to go to school, start a career and achieve success. But recent events have placed new obstacles on that road.”

Head Start, which serves children aged 3 to 5, was initially launched in 1965 as a summer school program to prepare low-income children for kindergarten. Since then, the program has grown to include Early Head Start, which serves children less than 3 years old, and has served more than 30 million students.

According to the National Head Start Association, students who participate in Head Start programs gain educational, economic and health benefits. Communities benefit from Head Start, the organization said, because children who participate in the programs are less likely to commit crimes when compared to siblings who do participate in Head Start programs.

“The decision to take away funding for high quality early learning for tens of thousands of young Americans is indefensible morally and economically. If we shortchange our children, we shortchange our nation,” Sebelius said in a statement. “Strong early learning can translate into school success, which can lead to college and good jobs, and ultimately a robust economy.”

Sebelius cited research that suggests that for every public dollar spent on early childhood education, communities receive a $7 return through increased productivity and savings on public assistance and criminal justice programs.

“So there is no question that these cuts jeopardize our children’s futures. America now ranks 28th globally in early childhood education enrollment and now risks falling even further behind in preparing our children for school,” Sebelius said in a statement. “We can’t win the race for the future by holding back our children at the starting line.”

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