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Tim Post and Tim Nelson

Cold shuts Anoka-Hennepin, Mpls. schools; no statewide order

Blowing wind
Winds blow snow off of a roof in downtown Mankato on Tuesday. Low wind chill temperatures are closing a number of schools around the state.
Jackson Forderer / For MPR News

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Updated 5:40 p.m. | Posted 2:42 p.m.

Schools in Minneapolis and the Anoka-Hennepin school districts will be closed Wednesday because of the forecast for bitter cold.

The districts made the announcement late Tuesday afternoon. The Minneapolis closure affects all MPS schools, programs and activities, including all Minneapolis Community Education programs and the Minneapolis Kids school age child care programs.

St. Paul Public Schools will remain open, but all student absences will be excused.

"I want to offer SPPS families the opportunity to do what they know is best for their own children," St. Paul Public Schools Superintendent Valeria Silva said in a statement. "For some of our families, school is the safest place for their students during this cold weather."

Other districts around the state will also be closed, including Brooklyn Center, Rochester, Monticello, and Big Lake.

The districts' decisions came hours after state officials announced there would be no statewide school closing order despite forecasts of wind chills in parts of Minnesota approaching 50 degrees below zero Wednesday morning.

Gov. Mark Dayton did cancel all public school classes for a day in January 2014. However, department spokesman Josh Collins said Tuesday that the order would not be repeated this week.

"The closures in 2014 were in very unique circumstances," Collins said. "It was coming off about 86 consecutive hours of sub-zero temperatures with highs across the state projected to be only about minus 15 degrees. So right now with kind of the forecast we're seeing, we know that schools are really best positioned to know what their situation is."