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MONDAY, OCTOBER 27, 2008

Absent at an alarming rate

20 to 25% of students most prevalent in poorer
communities with minority
COCHRANE McMAHON MORANO STRANIERE in public schools here populations.
All of the Staten Island
miss a month of schools cited in the study
THE REMATCH classes each year were on the North Shore,
with the exception of Egbert
By AMISHA PADNANI Intermediate School in Mid-
land Beach.
YOUR UNLIMITED ACCESS
STATEN ISLAND ADVANCE
PS 14 in Stapleton topped
Some come from immi- the Island list, with 41.3 per-
grant families or live in shel- cent of students missing 20

TO CONGRESSIONAL DEBATE ters.

Others just don’t feel well.
But whatever their situa-
days of school or more dur-
ing the 2007-08 academic
year. Not only is the school
tion, one out of every five labeled “persistently dan-
The candidates vying to There are still tickets children who attend Staten gerous” under the federal
claim the seat vacated by available if you would like to Island public schools is con- No Child Left Behind Act,
Rep. Vito Fossella will clash attend. To reserve tickets, sidered a “chronic absen- but 87 percent of the stu-
in the second of two debates send an e-mail with your tee.” dent body is signed up to re-
tomorrow night at 7:30 p.m., name, address and tele- According to a new report ceive free school lunches, a
and SILive.com is going to phone number to news- compiled by researchers at signifier that many of those
grant you unlimited access room@siadvance.com, or The New School, 20 to 25 children come from poor
to the showdown. call 718-816-3985 on percent of the borough’s ele- families.
Advance Political weekdays from 10 mentary and middle school The school’s principal did
Editor Tom Wrob- TICKETS STILL a.m. to 4 p.m. students missed about a not return a message left
leski will be “live AVAILABLE. There is a limit of month of school last year. with her secretary on Friday.
blogging” from the CALL OR two tickets for each That percentage reflects a The second school on the
main ballroom of E-MAIL. request and it will citywide problem, where list was PS 18, where 82
the Hilton Garden be first-come, first- more than 90,000 children percent of students are
Inn, Bloomfield, so DETAILS served. — about 20 percent — eligible for free school
you’ll be able to IN STORY. The candidates missed a month or more of lunch. About 26 percent of
follow the clash are Democratic class time. the students receive special
question by question, blow City Councilman Michael ADVANCE FILE PHOTO The report, called education services.
by blow. We’ll also post McMahon, Republican Approximately 41.3 percent of the students attending PS 14 in “Strengthening Schools by According to the report,
videos and photos. Robert Straniere, Indepen- Stapleton missed 20 days of school or more during the Strengthening Families,”
Also, if you go to dent Carmine Morano and 2007-08 academic year. says the rate of absences is SEE ABSENT, PAGE A 12
SILive.com the night of the Conservative Tim Cochrane.
debate, you’ll be able to sub- Want to know more about
mit a question you’d like the who’s running for office in
candidates to answer. The your borough?
Advance might add it to the Most candidates have
list of topics we ask the can- filled out questionnaires for
didates to address. the Advance.
Check out their answers
REPORTED FIRST ON SILIVE.COM at the online voter guide at
YESTERDAY, 9:24 P.M. SILive.com/elections.

HEADLINES
TOP NEWS FOR TODAY

GIVE HEALTHY TREATS

FOR HALLOWEEN
Trick or treat! If you want to OBAMA MCCAIN
avoid giving sweets this Hal-
loween, there are creative and
healthier alternatives to candy.
RACE FOR THE
See HEALTH, Page C 1 WHITE HOUSE
BAYONNE BRIDGE FIX
COULD COST $2B Candidates
The Port Authority of New York
and New Jersey, which is al-
ready anticipating a $1 billion gear up for
bill for the replacement of the
aging Goethals Bridge, could
be forced to spend twice that
amount to address the height
homestretch STATEN ISLAND ADVANCE/JAN SOMMA-HAMEL
limitations of the Bayonne McCain dismisses polls, Half-brothers Avery Gross and Donn Gross have ended a dispute that spans three decades and agreed to the sale of the estate
Bridge. See Page A 3 at 79 Howard Ave., Grymes Hill, which features a “Gatsby-like” mansion.
vows victory; more
than 100,000 attend

$1.4M reasons to end family feud

DIABETES WALK DRAWS
3,500 PEOPLE Obama rally in Colo.
More than 3,500 people filled By LIZ SIDOTI
the Great Lawn on the Willow- ASSOCIATED PRESS
brook campus of the College
of Staten Island for the 14th WASHINGTON — Re- After a decades-long spat, brothers agree to sell Grymes Hill mansion
annual Walk to Cure Diabetes. publican John McCain de-
clared “I’m going to win it,”
See Page A 4 By FRANK DONNELLY longed to the estate of Donn Gross’ city Finance Department’s Web site.
dismissing polls showing
STATEN ISLAND ADVANCE late mother, Blanche F. Gross. Surrogate Robert J. Gigante re-
him behind with little more
The century-old manse overlook- cently authorized an agreement in
WEATHER WATCHER than a week to go in the
After feuding for three decades, ing New York Harbor was once val- which Donn Gross will receive
presidential race. A confi-
Clara Villarreal of St. George: dent Democrat Barack Oba-
two brothers are finally making ued at $3.2 million, according to $658,000 to settle his interests in
peace — thanks to the pending $1.4 court papers. It previously housed the distribution of the assets of his
‘Cooler with ma drew a jaw-dropping
million sale of a 19-room Grymes former Wagner College President parents’ estates.
100,000 people to a single
times of Hill mansion. Norman Smith, and for a brief time Donn Gross, 48, will also relin-
rally and rolled out a new
Half-brothers Avery Gross and in the 1970s, singer Roberta Flack. quish his interest in a St. George
clouds and TV ad asserting his rival is
Donn Gross had long been at war Earlier this year, the house’s esti- property.
“running out of time.”
sun, high in over the landmark “Gatsby-like” mated market value dipped to just
Heading into the final
stucco villa at 79 Howard Ave. It be- under $1.6 million, according to the SEE FEUD, PAGE A 12
mid 50s.’ nine days of the 2008 con-
test, the White House com-
COMPLETE REPORT ON A 16 petitors campaigned in key
battlegrounds that President
Bush won four years ago as
TODAY’S INDEX the state-by-state Electoral

ADVICE
BUSINESS
A 10
A7
MOVIE TIMES
OBITUARIES
A2
A 13
College map tilts strongly in
Obama’s favor. Democrats
and Republicans alike say it
A little leverage might help health-care crisis here
CLASSIFIED B 10 SCOREBOARD B8 will be extraordinarily diffi-
Islanders have the Which leads me to you say?
COMICS C 11 TODAY IN cult for McCain to change
believe Hudson may have It does to me, anyway.
EDITORIAL A 14-15 HISTORY A4 the trajectory of the cam- chance to exert some run into a group of City The whole process had
GOSSIP A2 WEATHER A 16 paign before the Nov. 4 elec-
Council members heading the feel of a rigged poker
HEALTH C1 YOUNG tion. pressure on a mayor out for an oyster luncheon. game right out of “Guys and
LOTTERIES A2 ADVANCE B 12 “Unfortunately, I think
John McCain might be seeking a third term After all, extending the Dolls.”
time on term limits at the Then, to hear some of the
added to that long list of

Staten Island Advance on-line:
Arizonans who ran for pres-
www.silive.com
ident but were never elect-
ed,” McCain’s fellow senator
from Arizona, Republican
Jon Kyl, told the Arizona
Daily Star editorial board in
an interview published yes-
NORTH SHORE
SEE RACE, PAGE A 6
T
hree-hundred-and-
ninety-nine years ago
last month a ship’s
captain named Henry
Hudson dropped anchor in
the Lower Bay of what
would become known as
New York Harbor.
He reported later in his
diary that the natives he
CORMAC GORDON
met there were, “Friendly
people, but much inclined
to ... carrying away
whatever they take a fancy
to.”
direction of the mayor —
and allowing a handful of
politicians to improve their
own situations by
overturning the votes of the
everyday public — the
people who ride the ferries
and pay the taxes?
Smacks of something
slightly larcenous, wouldn’t
Council members try to
explain their votes! The last
time logic took such a
beating the tobacco
industry was explaining to
Congress why smoking
cigarettes was a good thing.
(All three Island Council
SEE GORDON, PAGE A 6