Photo Provided Cheryl Supanik, special education coordinator at Belmont-Harrison Career Center, relaxes after receiving her COVID-19 vaccine. She is being monitored by dental assisting students Amy Arnold, Bridgeport, from left, Maddie Kosky, Bellaire, Supanik, and Debbie Hawthorne, dental assisting instructor. The career center staff were first among Belmont County school employees to be vaccinated.

ST. CLAIRSVILLE — Vaccination of Belmont County’s adult school staff against COVID-19 began Tuesday at the Belmont-Harrison Career Center.

Superintendent Richard Schoene said the practical nature of the school played a role in the process, with trained staff administering shots and nursing students observing.

“We have approximately 40 staff members at the Belmont Career Center being vaccinated. We’re going to start with non-instructional employees … then our instructional employees,” Schoene said. “Our school nurse will be assisting, as well as in-house staff that’s certified and teach nursing here.”

Schoene said he could not give a precise percentage of how many staff would be vaccinated Tuesday, since the school has instructors at different locations where they will receive shots.

“The Harrison folks have already been inoculated,” he said.

The Harrison Hills City School District staff were able to receive their first-dose shots weeks before they would have become eligible elsewhere, since the county health department had extra doses set aside.

Schoene added that nine of his employees do not teach on the center’s St. Clairsville campus; instead, they are instructors of satellite classes in Belmont County’s other school districts.

“They’re being inoculated at the home schools,” he said. “I have five instructors (at St. Clairsville High School). They’ll get inoculated with the St. Clairsville staff.

“I’d say we are probably, at least, around 65 percent getting inoculated, total staff,” he said.

He said the COVID-19 pandemic and its attendant restrictions have complicated the school’s mission of providing practical, hands-on instruction to students in a variety of technical fields.

“The problem we have is, from an instructional standpoint, is anytime we’ve ever been on remote, those are days that our students are not hands-on,” he said. “We’ve been pretty lucky. We’ve done probably a total of (eight to 10) weeks hybrid … all the school year. Most of the time our kids have been here. Academically, the students are doing well, but we’re a little bit behind from the career-tech standpoint because all of our kids are not getting 100 percent hands-on every day while we were in the hybrid model.

“But we’ve been 100 percent in for weeks now.”

Schoene said the school was able to be fully in-person for half of the first semester as well. He said the employees were happy for the opportunity to get the shot.

“The benefit is obviously peace of mind with our staff that’s getting inoculated,” he said. “I don’t know if there will be any change or back to normal anytime soon.”

Belmont County Deputy Health Commissioner Robert Sproul said vaccinations will continue today, with employees of the Martins Ferry City and Bellaire Local school districts receiving their shots. Staff from private or religious schools located within those district areas will also go to the public school campuses to be vaccinated.

Sproul also issued a letter in response to questions from Belmont County residents who have reported difficulties and delays in being vaccinated. The chief obstacles continue to be scarcity of the vaccine and the strain on health department workers who are organizing and conducting vaccination clinics.

“The Belmont County Health Department is working diligently to serve the residents of Belmont County during this COVID-19 pandemic. We are now vaccinating 65-plus here in Belmont County per state guidance. The health department has been taking registrations for the COVID-19 vaccine wait list since Jan. 4.

“At that time, anyone in group 1B was eligible to sign up. Now that the state has released vaccines to all eligible residents 65-plus, Belmont County is scheduling appointments based on the date and time registrations were made. This list is very extensive, as many residents in Belmont County eagerly want to receive this vaccine.

“The state provides the health department with an unspecified amount of vaccines weekly, which does not allow for preplanning of appointments. Staff is working daily to schedule appointments when vaccine is received based on that registration list. The increased call volume is making it difficult for calls to be made from the department and we appreciate your patience and understanding at this time. The Belmont County Health Department wants to assure you that we are working to get this vaccine out in Belmont County as quickly and efficiently as possible.”

Sproul reported there have been 5,247 confirmed cases of the virus since the pandemic began, and 240 people are isolated with active cases while 4,850 have recovered. There are 60 people hospitalized.

A total of 97 people have died after being infected with the virus, with the latest being a man in his 80s reported Tuesday.