Sandy Hook students to head to Monroe

MONROE, Conn. (WTNH) -- One town is stepping up, being a good neighbor. The kids who went to Sandy Hook Elementary School will eventually go to classes at a different school, in Monroe.

Monroe's fire marshal says a former school in town should be ready "in a matter of days" to house students.

When the Newtown Board of Education decides it's time for the survivors of the Sandy Hook Elementary shooting to return to school they will head to the neighboring town of Monroe. The Chalk Hill School has been closed since June of 2011. It's now being re-worked and re-opened for the kids of Sandy Hook. Their main priority is the students' safety.

"We will be securing the students when they come in. There will be the presence of police officers, which if you've driven by the site are already there today," said Lt. Brian McCauley, Monroe PD. "Each one of our schools has a police officer in it. We have staffed our patrols heavily to make sure that everybody in this trying time is safe and secure."

Contractors have volunteered their time to help bring the building up to code and ready for young children.

"He said I don't know so much that it's I want to help as a need to help and I think maybe we can all feel that at this point," said Lt. McCauley. "We need to be doing something, these are our neighbors, these are our family, our New England community that we need to be on board with and help. These are innocent children that need to be put on the right path again."

Folks in Monroe are doing everything they can to make this transition as seamless as possible for the kids. They're going to be taking everything from  Sandy Hook Elementary school. All the tables, chairs, supplies and setting them up in the exact same way at the classrooms here in Monroe, that way hopefully at the first day of school in Monroe, students will take comfort in seeing some of their old things.

"If a picture was suppose to be on that wall, it's going to be on that wall. If books were on that walls, it will be on those walls, its going to look exactly as close to possible as what those children left in a hurry," said Stephen Vavrek, Monroe First Selectman.

The school will be ready for the students within days. Once the kids arrive, the First Selectman says it will be the safest school in the state.

Residents of Monroe say it's the least they can do for their neighbors who have been through so much.

"The first thing I did was go home and hug my children," said Lt. McCauley. "There are no words, there are no words."