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Students Displaced By Lightning Strike In Hempstead Set To Start The Year At School In Franklin Square

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- The new school year is getting underway Monday for about 600 Long Island kindergarten and pre-K students whose school was damaged in August by a lightning strike.

The lightning caused serious damage at the Prospect School in Hempstead. So while repairs continue, students will attend classes at the St. Catherine of Sienna School in Franklin Square.

Not long after the mid-August bout with Mother Nature, one could see patched fire damage on the roof of the Prospect School. But inside the water damage was so extensive, officials told CBS2's Carolyn Gusoff that the building would not be ready for the start of the school and there was no timetable on how long the building would be uninhabitable.

The lightning strike sparked a fire that damaged classrooms. It has been yet another hurdle for a school district embroiled in a costly legal battle over the fate of its suspended superintendent, and trying to pull its way out of, at times, a 37 percent graduation rate, which is one of the lowest in the nation.

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