In the year since a teenage gunman strode into Robb Elementary School in Uvalde and killed 19 fourth graders and two teachers, the building has stood empty, its windows boarded over, its students dispersed to other campuses with little chance to maintain the bonds they once shared.

That was poised to change on Saturday, as residents of the small town in South Texas prepared to break ground for a new elementary school in place of the one that became the scene of one of the worst school mass shootings in American history.

“Something horrible happened here,” said Eulalio Diaz Jr., the co-chair of a foundation dedicated to constructing the new campus, the first to be built in the town since 1985. “The new school, it’s a symbol of moving forward. We will always remember what the new school means. It’ll be a bright light in a dark time.”

Emotions remain raw 17 months after the tragedy, and many in this majority Latino community are still seeking explanations for why it took law enforcement officers from several agencies more than an hour to confront the gunman in a pair of connected classrooms where he was holed up with students, many of them dead or dying.