New York City Schools Shut for the Week New York City public schools will remain closed through the rest of the week, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg said Wednesday, creating an enormous scheduling headache for harried parents. The mayor said he expected almost all schools to reopen on Monday. He acknowledged it was an "inconvenience for parents" for children to miss a week of school, but said he decided to cancel classes Thursday and Friday because many schools - about 200 of the city's 1,400 school buildings, according to the Education Department - had been damaged by the effects of Hurricane Sandy. Eighty-six schools had no power on Wednesday, and others had flooding, structural damage and plumbing problems. At Public School 15 in Red Hook, Brooklyn, a dozen workers were struggling to pump water out of the basement Wednesday. The effort had started the night before. "That's a lot of water down there," said Elliott Cassas, a department employee. Private schools seemed to be following in the city's footsteps, though Bay Ridge Preparatory and Saint Ann's in Brooklyn said they would open Thursday. In New Jersey, dozens of school districts will be closed Thursday. On Nov. 8 and 9, Atlantic City was set to welcome New Jersey public school teachers for an annual convention billed as the largest gathering of its kind in the world. Students were scheduled to be off those days. But with Atlantic City reeling from storm damage, and with students in many districts already facing the loss of up to five days of school this week, those plans are uncertain, said Steve Wollmer, communications director of the New Jersey Education Association, the state teachers union. "In an ideal world we would hope that it would go forward, but it's not an ideal world; it's a mess down there, and it's a mess where our members live," Mr. Wollmer said. The effect of the storm on colleges was varied. Columbia University, perched safely in Morningside Heights, sustained little damage. All undergraduate and most graduate classes resumed on Wednesday, though a few graduate and professional schools opted to wait a bit longer. The university extended the deadline for early decision applications. At New York University in Washington Square, there was little damage, but operations were hobbled by the area's loss of power and transportation. Some 6,000 students in dorms powered by Consolidated Edison, or those where back-up generators are now out of power, were moved to safer facilities. Several City University of New York campuses had flooding or power loss, including Baruch College in Manhattan and Kingsborough Community College in Manhattan Beach, Brooklyn. Where power is available, classes will resume Friday, university officials said. Michael Rosas, a custodian at Public School 184, on the Lower East Side, said there had been no flooding, but there was no power and no generator. Coming in to check on the school from his home on the Jersey Shore, he said the school had been communicating with parents through an automated phone system, but since most parents had no power or Internet access, teachers had not been able to send out assignments. At P.S. 234 in Battery Park City, a custodian, Mohamad Hizam, said the basement held two feet of water but the school was otherwise fine. "Everything's good; we're going to be O.K.," he said, noting the school had a generator. New York State requires school districts to hold 180 days of classes, and the city, like most districts, exceeds that by a couple of days to account for the possibility of snow days. But the loss of a week will mean the city may have to convert some off days or vacation days to school days, unless the Legislature grants an exemption, which it has done before. The Education Department said that historically, Election Day is an off day, but that officials have not yet made a decision about classes for Tuesday. While many parents struggled with child care, David Oliver, a software developer from Park Slope, said the break came at a good time because his 13-year-old daughter was in the process of applying to high school. "It was hard for her to do that and keep up with all the school work," he said. So it's a nice respite. George Davison, the head of Grace Church School, a downtown private school, said his students had received assignments via Google Docs. And ninth graders, all of whom have iPads, have been instructed to document the effects of the storm using primary sources. "You have this incredible piece of equipment, go use it," he told them. He hopes classes resume on Monday. An earlier version of this story stated erroneously that this week's suspension of classes was the longest in at least 30 years. It also stated that schools would be closed on Election Day, but no decision has been made.