Educators Cobble Together a Post-Blizzard School Day

While Mayor Bill de Blasio said the decision to open New York City public schools on Monday was straightforward — the city had Sunday to dig out from the massive winter storm that blanketed the region, he said — educators told WNYC that overall staff and student attendance was down.   

Student attendance was 74 percent compared to a typical day, when about 90 percent of students are in school citywide, according to Department of Education figures. Specifically, Queens and Staten Island had the lowest attendance rates, both hovering near 71 percent. 

Lateness was also an issue. Principals said they scraped together plans as they assessed who was able to get in for all or most of the school day. 

Principal Berthe Faustin of P.S./I.S. 189 The Bilingual Center in Brooklyn said only about 5 percent of her staff was out today, but 60 percent were late. 

“We had all available hands on deck, including food services personnel," she said, adding that with both students and teachers out, she grouped students by grade in staging areas.

"Instruction was indeed compromised," she said, but "safety was first.”

Teacher Gary Proulx left a comment on WNYC.org that all of his fourth-grade students were in class, except for one who had the flu.

"We're having a very productive day of writing persuasive essays, comparing equivalent fractions, discussing character motivations in fantasy books, and finishing our graphic novels on Jamestown," he wrote. "I assure you, today is NOT a wasted day. It's snow people. Snow. Go to school."

Certain parts of the city were more affected by the snow, namely Queens and residential neighborhoods with smaller side streets. Brian Devale, principal of P.S. 257 in Brooklyn, said about one third of his students stayed home and many staff members were late. 

Principal Benjamin Sherman of East West School of International Studies in Flushing, Queens, said he drove three teachers from Astoria to the combined middle and high school. And he heard a lot of stories of unplowed streets and travel headaches from staff and families.

A silver lining, he said, is that it's Regents Week for high school students, with tests beginning on Tuesday. Students only need to come to school when they are taking tests.

Given that many teachers commute long distances, Katherine Moloney from P.S. 100 in Coney Island said she was surprised by how few were absent.

"This, even with many staff members in Long Island, Staten Island and New Jersey," she wrote. "Our biggest problem was that our street was not plowed well, which caused many delays in getting kids in on time, as well as stuck vehicles."