Students Begin Return to New Rochelle Schools

Heavy rain held off just long enough for students at Trinity Elementary School on Pelham Road to get in before the first bell Wednesday.

Holding umbrellas to protect them from the mist, parents and their children quickly crossed the streets under the watchful eye of the crossing guard.

Principal Ronaldo Briceño said the opening day went smoothly.

"The first day of school is always wonderful," he said. "You can see the excitement in the kids' faces. It's just the happiness of being back in school."

Briceño said it took a summer's worth of planning "to make sure we hit it off on a positive note."

The district's elementary schools, including kindergarten, had half day sessions. The middle schools held orientations for grades six through eight. All will have a full-day of classes Thursday.

At New Rochelle High School, the only students in attendance Wednesday were the freshmen. Sophomores and juniors will begin Thursday, with the seniors joining the mix finally on Friday.

District-wide the first day was fine, said spokesman Paul Costiglio, with the exception of the ongoing power outage at Albert Leonard Middle School.

Tropical Storm Irene knocked out the electricity, he said, and Con Ed had encountered problems restoring the power.

However, Costiglio said, ALMS students held their orientation session in the cafeteria, which had power supplied by a generator.

Late Wednesday, Costiglio said Con Ed expected to have the power restored to the building by early evening.

"Con Ed has committed to giving us a generator truck to power the building if they are unsuccessful," he said, so school will go on as scheduled Thursday.

Briceño acknowledged that the massive number of cars passing through the intersection near the school while about 850 students make their way to classes in the morning is a constant challenge.

"The traffic is unfortunately a reality here at Trinity," he said. "However, we do have the drop-off and pickup zones on Pelham and Church."

Briceño said he is working with the PTA on something called Walking Wednesday, which encourages students to hoof it at least one day a week.

"It is a neighborhood school," he said.

A particular point of pride in the school, Briceño said, was its performance in the English and math scores released toward the end of the last school year.

"We are in a bit of a victory lap kind of mode," he said, "mainly because we showed the greatest gains in the district in terms of ELA (English language arts) and math."

English scores were up 7 percent over the previous year; math, 13 percent.

"It's just another indication that Trinity has turned a corner and is in the mix," Briceño said.