Cincinnati Public Schools

Board members discussed a proposed vaccine requirement for volunteers within the district Monday evening.

"I do think that we need to just continue - as boring as it may sound - continue to emphasize the basics," Cincinnati Children's CEO Dr. Steve Davis said. "Get every kid 5 and over vaccinated if possible; have everybody wear masks indoors; and then I would say the balance of risk is better for them to be in school than it is for them to not."

Last Thursday, 786 employees were absent, more than when the district went remote in Nov. 2020. Last week, there were not enough substitute teachers to even fill half of the classrooms in need as cases continued ramping up.

The board voted 6-1 with Eve Bolton being the lone "no" vote. The district will return to in-person learning Jan. 24 if staffing levels are sufficient to open the schools.

"There's just no way to do the things that you usually do in-person," one superintendent says. "You can't replace that teacher right in front of your students, so if we have some kids absent, we work really hard to catch them up, but we really want to keep kids in place here in the classroom."

On Monday, student attendance was at 77% and the rate for substitute teachers was at 37%.

The Cincinnati Public Schools Board of Education discussed late arrivals of Metro buses to schools, the future of school resource officers in the district and gave thanks to outgoing board members during Wednesday's meeting.

The decades-long working relationship between Cincinnati Public Schools and Metro may end in June 2022.

In the official notice given Nov. 17, SORTA COO John Ravasio said federal law prohibits SORTA from competing with private charter operators, which led to SORTA not submitting a bid to provide services to CPS.

66% of all survey respondents did not support a mandatory student vaccination within Cincinnati Public Schools.