By DEEPTI HAJELA
Associated Press Writer

NEW YORK (AP) - Vice President Dick Cheney, who has largely kept a low profile since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, is returning to the spotlight.

Cheney, who was taken to a bunker below the White House after the attacks, was scheduled to get his first look at the wreckage of the World Trade Center on Thursday afternoon.

On Wednesday, Cheney appeared with President Bush at the White House before the president left for China. The vice president spent most of the last week working out of a secure location and has been largely hidden from public view.

The site Cheney will visit is much transformed since Bush stood atop a rubble pile and encouraged rescue workers three days after two hijacked jets smashed into the twin towers. Workers have removed almost 340,000 tons of concrete, steel and other rubble. The pile shrinks a little every day.

One Liberty Plaza, a skyscraper directly across from the devastated World Trade Center site, is expected to reopen Monday _ beginning what business leaders say will be the rebirth of the downtown financial district.

The 53-story building will be the first in the immediate area to reopen, said Carl Weisbrod, president of the Alliance for Downtown New York, a business improvement district.

In the days following the attacks, the city used One Liberty Plaza to support its emergency operations. The building houses administrative offices of the Nasdaq Stock Market. Other tenants include Goldman Sachs and Bank of Nova Scotia.

Progress also is being made at the nearby One, Two and Four World Financial Center.

"Those are very, very important buildings to come back," Weisbrod said. "They all have extremely high quality tenants in them _ and the sooner we get those workers back and help restabilize the neighborhood, the better off we all are."

Weisbrod noted three other nearby office buildings have "uncertain futures." But the reopening of the buildings surrounding the disaster site will have a broad impact on lower Manhattan, he said.

"It helps create a market that is going to sustain our retailers and our small businesses as well," Weisbrod said.

One World Financial Center, home to Dow Jones, Lehman Brothers, CIBC World Markets and National Financial Services, is scheduled to open Nov. 19.

Two and Four World Financial Center, where the main tenant is Merrill Lynch, are being repaired by the financial firm itself.

Four World Financial Center was largely untouched but a lack of access and utility service slowed the reopening. It should open in the next few weeks, said Joe Cohen, a spokesman for Merrill Lynch.

The eastern facade of Two World Financial Center, which faced the World Trade Center, was severely damaged and requires extensive work. It will take several months to a year before it reopens.

In another step toward recovery, about 6,000 people flocked to a city-sponsored job fair Wednesday, vying for some 13,000 job openings. City officials estimate 100,000 jobs were lost in the trade center attacks.

Thousands of people were turned away, prompting city officials to offer the job fair again next week.

Later in the day, the Board of Education adopted a resolution to require public schools to lead students in the Pledge of Allegiance at the start of school days and at school assemblies and events.

The resolution, which passed unanimously, also states that students and staff will not be forced to recite the pledge and will not be disciplined if they don't participate. Much of the law was already on the books.