As Minnesota's largest districts kick off school year, safety and literacy are key missions

It's back to school Tuesday for tens of thousands of students across the Twin Cities. Some schools did start early this year, but the state's biggest districts — Anoka-Hennepin, Minneapolis and St. Paul — are now open.

St. Paul Public Schools

Leaders in St. Paul Public Schools say staffing is strong to start the year after years of significant staffing shortages across the state's second largest district. 

The district serves 33,000 students across nearly 70 schools. And while the first day can be busy enough on its own, district leaders say it's in a much better place when it comes to staffing. 

District leaders say they've spent the summer preparing, from leadership meetings to teacher training. When it comes to staffing, Superintendent Stacie Stanley says the numbers are a big improvement from the pandemic. What was once hundreds of openings is now dozens. 

Stanley reports strong staff retention and credits summer hiring fairs and recruiting efforts across the Twin Cities. She says it leaves the district feeling ready for the first day. 

"There was a point during COVID where St. Paul Public Schools had over 600 openings for staff members. We were down to less than 50," Stanley said. "We are excited. We had strong retention across the board, had to make some tough decisions around enrollment losses that we had directly related to the surge last year, and still had to come back and make some hirings. We are in a really good place, really excited about that."

Several metro districts have grappled with dropping enrollment following the immigration enforcement surge earlier this year, which in turn can impact budgets. In St. Paul, Stanley says the true impact won't be felt until later this fall. 

In the weeks ahead of school starting, the district's safety and security liaisons went through training.  Stanley says their focus isn't just responding to a crisis, but building relationships with students before one happens. 

Stanley says last year's Immigration and Customs Enforcement surge took a toll on everyone — students, families and staff — and it's still being felt. 

"I will say we are still recovering, if you will, from the surge. You know there's still that social-emotional aspect of that. Our teachers had a very tough year last year, our families, students and staff, and we're recovering from that and taking care of one another and just wanting families to know that we are here for them," Stanley said. "Community continues to link arms and to partner to make sure that every member of our school community is well taken care of."

Stanley says the district is keeping a close eye on enrollment, and she expects a better picture of what that looks like by mid-October. There are also some exciting things in the works in the district, including the new AfroCentric Magnet Program launching this year at Benjamin E. Mays Schools.

Anoka-Hennepin School District

Classes are also now in session for around 38,000 students in the Anoka-Hennepin School District, which serves 13 suburban communities in the north metro.

Superintendent Greg Cole says the district is constantly looking at safety measures other districts are doing to see what works or what's new in the industry. This year they are adding mobile surveillance units, which are essentially cameras mounted on trailers that can be moved around for large events, like football games.

"A mobile surveillance unit is essentially, it's a camera in the skies, so to speak, on a trailer, and they're mobile. You can take them from site to site. You sort of break them down and put them up at a different site. And really, they're sort of the equivalent of when you see a police officer on the side of the road on a highway," Cole said. "Just something for people's awareness that we're monitoring these large events just to ensure that they're as safe as they can possibly be."

Cole says a major goal this year for students surrounds reading and literacy skills. It has been six years since the pandemic really threw everything upside down for schools, and there were huge conversations about learning loss for students.

But Cole doesn't feel like students need to catch up, but more so launch them forward. As the district prepared for the year, Cole says they spent a lot of time on teacher and staff development to focus on the recruitment and retention of staff, student engagement and preparing students for a rapidly changing world, especially when it comes to artificial intelligence. That is why reading and literacy skills are top goals for the school district this year.

"Reading is possibly the best weightlifting one can do for the brain and brain development, and we believe that that is something that our kids are really going to need in order to help them be cognitively agile and have the kind of emotional regulation that they're going to need to manage all of the future changes that they're going to face in a rapidly changing world," he said.

As for why they are starting after Labor Day this year compared to other districts in the state, Cole says it's part of their tradition and expectation for families to have that last break before school begins.