K-12 teachers in Ohio could begin receiving the COVID-19 vaccine as early as Feb. 1, provided their districts agree to return to in-person or hybrid learning by March 1. Lakota Local Schools superintendent Matt Miller is already making plans.

“We want to be ready,” he said Friday afternoon. “We want to be prepared as quick as we can for those that do want it.”

Feb. 1 isn’t far away. In the 23 days remaining, Miller and other superintendents throughout Ohio must decide on a return to in-person learning, survey their staff to learn which will be vaccinated, create a vaccination plan with the help of local health officials and communicate each development with students’ families.

TIMELINE: When Ohioans can get the COVID-19 vaccine

“That’s something we’re not used to in schools, obviously, but something that our partners are,” Miller said of the complex logistical task in front of him. “We’re relying on them to help us with some of the logistics and coordination and timing all of that.”

Lakota will return to full-time, in-person classes for most students during the spring semester. Only students who specifically opted out will learn online.

The same is true for Lockland Local School District, where superintendent Bob Longworth said he trusts his public health partners to create a plan that’s best for everyone in the distrct.

“We’re in very good hands in this region of the state,” he said. “We’re very confident in publc health and the work they’re going to do to coordinate the logistics.”

Most staff members in both districts are eager to be vaccinated, the superintendents said.

“Each day, our goal is to make sure that we can open up the doors the following day for the students and families that need us,” said Longworth.

That’s about 552 students for him and 15,000 for Miller.

Cincinnati Public Schools, which serves 36,000, has yet to make a decision about its own possible return to in-person learning. The district’s board of education meets next on Jan. 16 to examine local health data and discuss a possible end to remote learning.

And all of their plans rely on Ohio receiving enough vaccine to cover the increasingly large population eligible for the shot.

According to Mike DeWine, the state expects to get about 100,000 doses each week for the next several weeks. By the time teachers become eligible to receive the vaccine, they’ll be in line alongside hundreds of thousands of seniors who became eligible before they did.

As schools head back to the classroom, many people have questions about what, if anything, will change in schools after the pandemic.

WCPO 9 anchor Julie O'Neill talked with Lakota Local Schools Superintendent Matt Miller about the upcoming school year, requiring students to wear masks indoors and how the district will handle pandemic setbacks.

JO: How much catching-up time do you think you need, generally speaking, for kids?

MM: There's one train of thought that calls that learning loss. I prefer to use the term school loss, because it's not just the academic piece. It's the relationships. It's the sports. It's the band. So I don't think we're going to be able to answer that yet until all the kids are back.

We are in a fortunate position in Lakota that our kids were at least offered in-person learning from the get-go last year. Last year at our peak we were at about 4,000 students that were on our virtual learning option. This coming school year we're down to about 350.

JO: Do you foresee some kids continuing with just online going forward, whether COVID's a threat or not?

MM: Yeah, I do think that there is a sliver of our student population that will want to continue to learn, the virtual learning option, moving forward. It's actually something at Lakota we've been talking about doing. Just providing as an option for our families even pre-COVID.

JO: What about the emotional peace for students? What are you doing here to prop them up?

MM: We have a pretty robust guidance program for our kids, and we actually have added to the social-emotional learning components in a class for our K through 6 kids, so we brought that online because we knew we were going to have some issues we were going to have to address.

One of the other things that Lakota has done is we've ramped up our therapy dog program for our kids. We have seven therapy dogs now for the district. The therapy dogs are trained to de-escalate, to help kids, and adults for that matter, with anxiety and things like that.

JO: All right, what do you want to say to the kids, to the staff as they head to school today?

MM: I think the biggest thing that I'm excited about with this new school year is welcoming our kids back. This just feels like a different year in terms of how different it had been in the past year and a half. Our kids do amazing things. I don't think our kids get enough credit for their accomplishments and what they do, and certainly that can also transcend into the teachers and staff. I'm just excited to welcome people back. Let's go.

The principal placed on leave last month from Lakota East High School will be “reassigned” to a different job in the school system as district officials advertise for her replacement, the superintendent said this week.

In Superintendent Matt Miller’s Facebook chat Wednesday evening, he said that “we did post (advertise) a position for the next principal at Lakota East," the Journal-News reports.

On May 4, according to documents first obtained through a public records request by the Journal-News, then-Lakota East Principal Yejide Mack was ordered on paid leave but no reason was noted in her personnel records though there was a reference to an investigation by district officials of the first-year principal.

“I really can’t comment on the personnel issue with our former principal other than there will be a reassignment in the future,” Miller said during the Facebook Live chat watched by more than 1,000 viewers.

Mack’s attorney, Kelly Mulloy Myers, did not respond to phone or email requests seeking comment.

Mack’s departure coincided with Lakota East’s preparations for its graduation ceremony last month. Under Mack’s supervision, the school had switched from its traditional, gender-specific cap and gown colors of black for boys and white for girls to all black for all students.

Miller later apologized in a message sent to Lakota East school parents and students for the change and said the traditional, gender-specific colors would be restored as was done prior to last month’s commencement ceremony.

As with Mack’s departure last month, Lakota officials again released no announcement Wednesday or Thursday to news media, nor posted any message on the district’s website pertaining to the status for the principal who oversaw a school of more than 2,600 students.

As of Thursday evening, Mack was still listed as principal on the Lakota East High School’s website staff directory.

Lakota East is one of the largest high schools in Ohio according to enrollment, and the Lakota school system, with 16,800 students, is the ninth-largest in the state.

A a review of Mack’s personnel file this week, there was no resignation letter from Mack nor any notation of a change in her employment status beyond the previously released May 4 district directive placing her on leave.

Miller said during his Wednesday online chat the advertisement for candidates for the Lakota East principal’s job was posted for “five or six days now and we’ll close that on Monday.”

“We’re getting some really good applicants on that,” Miller said.

The Journal-News is a media partner of WCPO 9 News.