Staten Island kids learned next to nothing on Tuesday \u2014 with roughly 70% of borough students taking off the day after one of the biggest blizzards in NYC history.<\/p>\n
Staten Island was slammed hardest of the five boroughs <\/a>with some neighborhoods seeing nearly 30 inches of snow, causing public-school absentee rates there to skyrocket to a jaw-dropping 69.8% \u2014 more than double the same-day citywide average of 36.8%, according to city Department of Education data.<\/p>\n Mayor Zohran Mamdani\u2019s cold-as-ice decision to re-open schools<\/a> rather to switch to remote learning fueled a blizzard of backlash on the \u201cForgotten Borough,\u201d <\/a>where critics say he conveniently ignored that the borough\u2019s single rail line was out of service and underestimated the difficulty of plowing snow from its many hilly and narrow roads.<\/p>\n Staten Island kids learned next to nothing on Tuesday \u2014 with roughly 70% of borough students taking off the day after one of the biggest blizzards in NYC history. Stefano Giovannini for NY Post<\/p>\n \u201cThis is going to go down, along with new Coke and the decision to put hydrogen in the Hindenburg instead of helium, as one of the worst decisions in history,\u201d said Councilman Frank Morano (R-Staten Island).<\/p>\n The results on Staten Island were disastrous and include:<\/p>\n Staten Island was slammed hardest by the recent blizzard of the five boroughs with some neighborhoods seeing nearly 30 inches of snow, causing public-school absentee rates there to skyrocket Tuesday to a jaw-dropping 69.8% \u2014 more than double the same-day citywide average of 36.8%, according to city Department of Education data. Robert Peak \u2013 stock.adobe.com<\/p>\n A slew of snow banks blocking crosswalks, roads and many parking areas for school buses.<\/p>\n Multiple schools reported 80\u201385% of students skipping classes.<\/p>\n Special-needs schools like David Marquis School of the Arts in Great Kills were not able to safely unload students in wheelchairs from buses because of unplowed snow.<\/p>\n Students at Myra S Barnes School Intermediate School 24, also in Great Kills, were briefly banished to the cafeteria because the power was out for two hours.<\/p>\n \u201cI just don\u2019t understand how the mayor and [Schools] Chancellor [Kamar Samuelson] didn\u2019t think this wasn\u2019t a perfect day for remote learning \u2014 especially in our community, which had it much worse because we\u2019re so car dependent,\u201d Morano told The Post.<\/p>\n