St. Paul Public Schools welcomed some 30,000 students back to school Tuesday as classes resumed for grades 1-12, with kindergarten and preschool students starting Thursday.
Among those returning students were roughly 250 children attending East African Elementary Magnet School, which opened for the first time Tuesday in the former Jackson Elementary building. Jackson closed last year as part of a districtwide consolidation, but the building now is part of an effort to stop a decadelong enrollment decline by competing with East African charter schools.
Outside temperatures were expected to reach the low-to-mid-90s Tuesday, making for an uncomfortable first day of school for many students and staff as most St. Paul schools lack air conditioning.
New to Minnesota schools this fall, students across the state can get free school meals, which the state is covering at a projected cost of $200 million a year.