Newtown's students and teachers begin the school year next week, with the usual anxieties that accompany a new year. Incoming freshmen to the Newtown High School worry about fitting in to a new culture, having left the middle school world that they dominated for the last year. Returning high school students have grown and matured (hopefully) over the summer, and are facing more decisions each year to determine where they want to be when graduation day rolls around.

Kindergartners have practiced getting on and off the buses at their schools, and students in grades one through six are as apprehensive as they are excited to meet new teachers and be introduced to new ways of learning.

Teachers have spent the summer expanding their own knowledge so that they can be better classroom leaders. They must learn a whole new roster of names and learning styles, and meet a new group of parents with varying expectations.

Nowhere, though, will the anticipation of the school year be felt more profoundly than at the new Sandy Hook Elementary School. Students there will find a state-of-the-art building incorporating the latest in safety and engineering technology. It is a learning environment to be envied. The youngsters and teachers can look forward to an education enhanced by surroundings that welcome and encourage learning at all levels.

That excitement will be more reserved for some who step off of the bus at 12 Dickinson Drive. Members of the fourth grade class will walk through the entrance of the new school and may recall a different building that before December 14, 2012, stood on the site. This class and the teachers and administration who were present that terrible day will walk the halls, remembering a place that no longer exists - and the lives that did not move forward from that day on. That children who were kindergartners in 2012-13 school year plan to return to the new Sandy Hook School as fourth grade students this year speaks volumes for the careful nurturing that has been in place these nearly four years.

As a community, we have strived for recovery since 12/14, seeking meaningful and positive avenues to do so. Our school system has had the support of the Town of Monroe, graciously providing a school building for the displaced Sandy Hook students and educators. Counselors and programs to promote healing have been in place, with an emphasis on sensitivity to the never-before experienced level of trauma.

It will be an emotional transition from Chalk Hill School in Monroe to the school that now lightens the landscape of Newtown's darkest day. We have no doubt, though, that teachers, parents, and administrators are well prepared to ease every SHS student into the 2016-17 school year.

While never forgetting the school's past, the dedication to learning will deck these shiny new halls with joy and hope and the knowledge that Love Wins.

May all of Newtown's students find peace and growth as they delve into another year of learning.