NYC-WTC_000230572

NYC 9/11 Public Portal Document

daily NEWS, Wednesday, October io, 2001

Stuyvesant reopens, I I but students jittery By JOE kVIUJAIVlS and ELIZABETH HAYS daily news staff writers

Stuyvesant High reopened yesterday, its students Pupils relocated and teachers filled with a grab bag of emotions. Yesterday also marked a tran­ Four weeks after being uprooted by the terrorist at­ sition day for hundreds of ele­ tacks at the nearby World Trade Center, students — mentary students from Public and their parents — expressed continuing concerns School 234, at Greenwich "St. about safety at the school. near Chambers St., which until recently served as a staging area “It’s a mix — eagerness, a bit for crews at Ground Zero. of fear and excitement about crammed into Brooklyn Techni­ The kids moveS to the former coining back,” said student body cal High School for shortened classes, while a million-dollar St, Bernard’s Catholic school on President Jukay Hsu. "We cleanup was done at Stuyvesant. W 13th St., closed since June. missed our school, and lots of us = They could be there until the = were homesick.” Battery of air tests Christmas break, parents said. Students were required to The air was tested by the Students from the school had show their student IDs before Board of Education, the city, the been sharing space at PS 41 on even getting close to the build­ federal government and private­ ' W. 11th St. ing. Parents and other onlook ly by Stuyvesant’s parent associ­ "These kids will finally have ers were kept away. ation. some air,” said Rene Dekker, While parents had concentrat­ “The tests show it’s safe to be । whose 6-year-old son and ed on air quality inside the here,” said Chancellor Harold 8-year-old daughter attend PS school, new concerns emerged Levy, who moved his office to 234, yesterday about the air quality the school for the week to show outside, six blocks from Ground that he believes the reports. Zero, as dump trucks carrying Though the parent association ■ debris rolled up adjacent West agreed to the reopening on the St. condition that air qualify be con­ “This is a construction site. tinually monitored, other par­ ents questioned the decision. We're walking through a con­ struction site,” said Rochelle Kal­ “The construction workers ish, 47, of Windsor Terrace, have masks, gloves, and wash­ Brooklyn, whose daughter is a down areas, but the kids don't,” freshman. said Kathie McGinty, 50, of the West Village. She said she want­ After the school was evacuat­ ed her daughter to wear a mask ed Sept. 11, Stuyvesant was to school, but that her daughter, turned into a temporary triage a junior, objected. center for rescue efforts in Attendance yesterday was nor­ lower Manhattan. mal at Stuyvesant, with 160 ab­ J Until yesterday, students sences out of 3,077 students, said Kevin Ortiz, a spokesman for the Board of Education. Mark Shildkret, 15, a sopho­ more from Bayside, Queens, said he was happy to be back but wished he could turn back the clock and return to the way things used to be. _ “I liked the way my normal ‘ , life was, I want to go back to it,” . Shildkret said. “1 was pretty hap-' py”

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NYC-WTC_000230572