Shakopee school leaders extend Thanksgiving break due to COVID-19 spike

Shakopee schools superintendent announces extended break due to COVID-19

The superintendent of Shakopee Pubic Schools, Mike Redmond, announced Thursday that classes are cancelled for Monday, November 22 and Tuesday, November 23, extending Thanksgiving break due to the COVID-19 outbreak.

SHAKOPEE, Minn. (FOX 9) - As school districts in Minnesota see a rise in COVID-19 cases, Shakopee Public Schools announced on Thursday that it is extending its Thanksgiving break.

The school is cancelling classes on November 22 and 23, in addition to planned days off from November 24 to 26 for the holiday.

The district says it hopes the extra days off will help "slow or decrease the rising number of COVID-19 cases in our district."

"With the recent increase in cases both inside our schools and in the greater community, we're facing a new challenge in terms of the COVID-19 pandemic," said Superintendent Mike Redmond. "With that in mind, we're going to use the opportunity that the upcoming holiday break provides to have no school for kids on both Monday and Tuesday. What that does is let us have a nine-day period of time where our kids won't be in school and hopefully then, after that nine days, we'll see those COVID cases in our district decrease."

Redmond says the district is also working to deal with staffing shortages, to allow classes to remain in-person as much as possible.