Union leaders reached agreement with the city to swap three vacation days in February for school days and return a clerical half day to one more day of instruction to make up for learning time lost to the Sandy and its aftermath.

An elementary school teacher sings the praises of his school community as it absorbed the repercussions from Sandy and prepared to return to its building in Rockaway Park, Queens.

Twelve more city schools will re-open on Monday, after having relocated because of storm damage from Sandy. Relocating has been an unsettling experience for teachers and students. It was especially challenging at the Goldie Maple School, from the Rockaways, which was moved twice and split between different sites in the last three weeks.

The number of displaced schools is dropping to 18, as 12 schools and programs return to their repaired buildings on Monday.

About 15,000 students are in schools relocated to other buildings after storm Sandy. The students at P.S. 288 on Coney Island are adjusting to the new routine. Some said the comfortable coach buses make it feel like a field trip that happens every day.

Middle school students from I.S. 211 return to their home building in Canarsie on Thursday thanks largely to the hard work of the custodial staff who worked long days to ready the building for classes again.

Three city schools in buildings damaged by Sandy will be able to reopen on Wednesday, but 34 others will remain in their new temporary locations until they can be repaired. Overall attendance at all of the schools that had to go to different locations on Tuesday was 67.1 percent, an improvement over last week’s showing of less than 40 percent.

A principal’s heartfelt account of the early response and relocation of his school after Sandy drew praise, especially from inside the school’s community.

One principal muses on the role school leaders and school buildings play in times of trauma. Even when faced with displacement and damage of their own, his teachers and staff have had to find the strength to lead their students through this difficult post-Sandy adjustment period.

Over 6,000 students can return to their original school buildings Tuesday, two weeks after the storm surge knocked out dozens of schools from operation. The city plans to allocate about $200 million dollars in extra spending to repair the still-damaged buildings.