More than 29,000 elementary, middle and high school students returned to class Monday in the Minneapolis Public Schools, the state's third-largest district.
Second-year Superintendent Bernadeia Johnson crisscrossed the city, discussing increased enrollment in southwest Minneapolis and greeting students in north Minneapolis affected by the May tornado that left many children homeless or displaced.
Roughly 3,200 Minneapolis kindergartners start school Wednesday.
At Elizabeth Hall International Elementary School in north Minneapolis, students happily accepted new, donated backpacks, filled with school supplies.
Students in most other Minnesota districts return to class after Labor Day.
COREY MITCHELL
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