After one day in session, public schools will be out tomorrow and Friday
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- A flurry of backpacks, pig tails and lumbering yellow buses today could only symbolize one thing: school is back in session.
Students make their way to Totten Intermediate School this morning.Hand in hand, parents and children walked the few blocks to their neighborhood houses of learning. Some bounded there, some shuffled their feet the whole way and some -- even the parents -- shed a few tears.
"She's my first child. I'm so nervous. I don't know how she's going to react and it's so hard to let her go," said a misty-eyed Christine Porcu, as she waved goodbye to 4-year-old Anneliese, who marched off to kindergarten at PS 11, Dongan Hills. "My daughter was more excited than me. She wasn't nervous at all."
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After today, children will be off from school on tomorrow and Friday for the Jewish holiday, and won't return to class until Monday, Sept. 13. While some parents thought it was a nice break between the first and second day, others felt it would be difficult.
"I think it's a hindrance," said Bibi Saqe, whose 5-year-old kindergartener, Safiyah clung to her, crying and wailing when it was time for parents to leave. "She was excited all summer, but I guess the reality of being here freaked her out. Now on Monday, we're going to replay this whole scene again.
Nearly 3,000 Staten Island seventh-and eighth-graders won't have yellow school bus service after the city eliminated the rides to cut costs. A legal challenge awaits next week, though for now, students must walk, get rides or find other means of transportation to school.
Read Peter N. Spencer and Maura Yates' story about the issue in today's Advance.
Severely cut budgets have also caused principals to cut some parent coordinator positions.
Also, read about changes to classrooms across the borough in Amy Padnani's story yesterday.