Mankato Area Public Schools gears up for an unusual school year

MANKATO, Minn. (KEYC) — Here in Mankato, the Mankato Area Public Schools faces a number of challenges with a large K-12 student body as well as the district covering multiple counties.

Superintendent Paul Peterson says Gov. Tim Walz’s plans clarified what to do if multiple counties are in one school district.

In those cases, the plan is based on the county with more significant COVID-19 numbers, as well as cases per 10,000 people.

If school started Thursday, the recommendation for schools within Blue Earth County would be to go with a hybrid model to begin the school year.

Gov. Tim Walz announced Thursday that each school district will be allowed to make its own decision as to how students will learn this fall.

“While there is still a lot of planning to do, work to do and a lot of communication to share with our families, we do have a clear direction as to how we can improve within our county to see that in-person learning can happen for as many kids, especially for our elementary, middle and high school students here at the start of the school year,” Peterson said.

Peterson also said most teachers are excited to get back, but they just want to be able to do it as safely as possible.

Copyright 2020 KEYC. All rights reserved.