Students at a Staten Island high school were warehoused in the auditorium with no instruction yesterday because Hurricane Sandy evacuees were occupying their classrooms — until the refugees were booted with little warning.
City officials moved out roughly 130 evacuees and their pets from the basement of Susan Wagner HS in mid-morning to clear out classrooms and a gym.
Families at several of the 43 schools that opened in alternate locations struggled to get kids to school because of yellow-bus problems.
One student said he bicycled an hour from his home in The Rockaways to Franklin K. Lane HS in Cypress Hills, while Coney Island mom Altovise Green said she kept her daughter home from PS 188 because busing wasn’t provided to a temporary site in Bensonhurst.
“It’s a crazy situation we’re dealing with out here,” Green said.
Attendance at relocated schools was 43 percent, according to the Department of Education. It was 87 percent citywide.
Officials said all schools would open today — 56 in alternate locations, as many as 28 without heat and four still housing evacuees.
More than a dozen relocated schools won’t offer transportation because there aren’t yet enough yellow buses to go around.
“We’re trying a variety of different mechanisms to make sure we get our students to the schools,” said Chancellor Dennis Walcott.
Additional reporting by Georgett Roberts