St. Clair schools waits to argue case to Walz about in-person classes

ST. CLAIR, Minn. (KEYC) — Area superintendents have been sharing their thoughts after Gov. Tim Walz announced last week the state’s guidance for schools this fall.

St. Clair Superintendent Tim Collins says he would love all kids in school safely, if possible. He’s happy that the district will be able to make a decision with regional support, but also says schools don’t have much time to prepare.

The announcement did not change the district’s plans too much.

“Because we are part of Blue Earth County, where the cases are a little bit higher, we definitely wanted to go K-5, K-6 if we can every day in-person and spread out, and the numbers are a little bit high for that right now,” explained Collins.

St. Clair sits on the edge of Blue Earth County, about 10 miles from Mankato.

Because most of the Blue Earth County cases are closer to Mankato and Walz is allowing each school district to choose a plan and make their case to the state, Collins says he will be doing that soon.

"We're going to wait for the next round of numbers and I will definitely be arguing our case for K-6 to be in-school, person-to-person, and I think smaller school districts have a little bit more of an ability to spread out than some of the larger school districts."

Collins adds that the difficulties of this school year are drafting a variety of plans, having enough back-up personnel in place and feeding kids if they do in fact need to go remote.

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