Roosevelt students feel change on 1st day

Roosevelt relocated hundreds of its students for the first day of school Tuesday to make way for the $67-million, yearlong renovation of its high school, the final piece of a districtwide makeover.

About 750 students in grades nine through 12 are going instead to Roosevelt Middle School, and middle school students and staff are assigned to Ulysses Byas Elementary School. Students who would have been at Byas Elementary have been relocated to the district's other two primary schools.

For some, the move was bittersweet. Student Tiara Cruz, 18, walked to the middle school for the start of her senior year.

"It's OK," she said. "I'd rather be in high school, and to spend my last year there."

Her classmate Isaac Oladipo, 18, was more agreeable. "It's a change," he said. "It's going to be a little different, but I'll like it."

The renovation of 55-year-old Roosevelt High began in July and is slated for completion next August, in time for the 2012-13 school year, district officials said. It is the last part of a complete rebuilding of the district's facilities under a $245.5-million project believed to be the largest school construction project undertaken on Long Island.

New facilities planned at the high school include a library, cafeteria, science labs and a sports complex. Many residents have said reconstruction is long overdue and essential to address leaky ceilings, broken lockers and rusty plumbing.

Roosevelt already constructed a new middle school and rebuilt all three elementary schools -- Byas Elementary, Centennial Avenue Elementary School and Washington-Rose Elementary School.

R.G. France, assistant superintendent of educational services, said opening day went well and school administrators visited the buildings to monitor the moves.

Parent Chanel McCullough dropped off her 10-year-old daughter -- who is in middle school -- at Byas Elementary.

"I'm OK with it," said McCullough, 36, who also has a daughter in the high school. "I think it's worth it to get a new high school. It's long overdue."

But parent Stephanie Raye, who has a daughter going into sixth grade, wasn't a fan of the plan.

"They waited too long to fix the high school," she said, adding that all the moves on opening day made "the transition unbelievable."

"Nothing is operating right," she said.

Alfred T. Taylor, a member of the Roosevelt Board of Education, drove around the district Tuesday morning to check on how the first day was going.

Although he said things were a bit "hectic" at Centennial Avenue Elementary, he found things running smoothly for the most part.

"This is going to be a trying year," Taylor said. "I have no doubt everyone will get used to the location and things will be fine."