New beginnings all over LI as classes resume

The music students at Westbury's Powells Lane Elementary School played the Bob Marley song with the lyric "every little thing gonna be all right" in the hallway for the first day of class Tuesday, and in this school, as in most across Long Island, it seemed like everything was.

"I like school, and I like learning," said fifth-grader Shania Hardy, 10, who moved along with the well-known "Three Little Birds" song. "I'm having a great time."

It was a day of new beginnings across Long Island as the vast majority of Long Island's roughly 450,000 students returned to class Tuesday. And while district officials Islandwide reported a smooth first day, the 2010-11 year opened against a backdrop of considerable financial challenges as most districts reported shedding at least a few teacher positions this year, through layoffs or attrition - the most widespread job losses since the early 1990s.

Teachers and other school employees still await word from Albany on when the state will start distributing federal funds meant to restore jobs - including $89.3 million for the Island. Distribution requires approval from the State Legislature, which has not said when it will come back into session.

"Every day they wait it means a child is denied a class-size reduction," said Jeff Rozran, Syosset teacher union president and member of the state teacher union governing board.

Huntington students returned to cramped classrooms as the district has been in turmoil following violence near the Jack Abrams School in Huntington Station. The shooting of a teen near the school in July led the board to close the school and place fourth-grade students at the district's primary schools and grades 5-6 at Woodhull Intermediate School.

Shari Harris, co-PTA president at the district's Washington Primary School, who has a first-grader at the school, said, "We're focused on making sure the kids are happy. The overcrowding and other issues have nothing to do with the kids. It's going to be a great year."

Paul Bayer said he took his son, a second-grader, out of Washington. "We were thinking about pulling him out of the district at the end of the school year because of the education model, but the decision was cemented when we heard about the class sizes for this year," Bayer said outside Washington school, where his son caught the bus to his new private school.

Washington officials said the day went smoothly.

Jason Kessler, 11, a sixth-grader at Woodhull, said his first day was "fun" and he enjoyed "a new experience being in a new building," but noticed that classrooms are much smaller than those at Jack Abrams, where he went last year.

His mother, Meryl Otis Kessler, said, "I had a little anxiety, but he had a great day. The priority is safety. The only other priority is learning, and you need a safe environment for that."

Westbury school officials unveiled two new classrooms at Powells Lane Tuesday, one for English as a second language and another for special education. The $5-million project was part of a construction bond with no cost to taxpayers, said Superintendent Constance Clark-Snead.

Special education teacher Andrea Wayne said now she won't have to share space with another class. "It's bright. It's airy," she said. "The kids are situated so they can learn from any point in the room."

With John Hildebrand