There was no discussion during Thursday’s Jersey City Board of Education meeting about when public schools might reopen for in-person learning. Superintendent Franklin Walker has previously said that schools won’t reopen for live classes before February 2nd.

But like with many other topics and issues these days, the COVID-19 pandemic has brought a new twist to that conversation, as the prospect of an effective vaccine against the coronavirus in the coming weeks and months has raised questions over whether it, too, will be required in schools — and if that vaccine mandate would include students, teachers and all school staff.