diff --git a/.github/workflows/tests-and-docs.yml b/.github/workflows/tests-and-docs.yml
index 0f3b4bb038..d10debf232 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/tests-and-docs.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/tests-and-docs.yml
@@ -19,6 +19,10 @@ env:
   # unfortunately, there doesn't seem to be a way
   # to reference SKEMA_RS_PORT in SKEMA_RS_ADDESS ...
   SKEMA_RS_ADDESS: "http://127.0.0.1:8001"
+  SKEMA_MATHJAX_PROTOCOL: "http://"
+  SKEMA_MATHJAX_HOST: "127.0.0.1"
+  SKEMA_MATHJAX_PORT: "8031"
+  SKEMA_MATHJAX_ADDRESS: "http://127.0.0.1:8031" 
 
 jobs:
   docs:
@@ -71,6 +75,11 @@ jobs:
       with:
         distribution: temurin
         java-version: 11
+    - name: Setup NodeJS
+      uses: actions/setup-node@v4
+      with:
+        node-version: 18
+      run: npm install express
     # Install dependencies
     - name: System-wide deps
       run: |
@@ -137,7 +146,10 @@ jobs:
         cargo build --release --bin skema_service
         ./target/release/skema_service &
         echo "results for ${SKEMA_RS_HOST}:${SKEMA_RS_PORT}/version: `curl -s ${SKEMA_RS_HOST}:${SKEMA_RS_PORT}/version`"
-
+    - name: "Launch Mathjax in background for testing"
+      working-directory: ./skema/img2mml/data_generation
+      run: |
+        npm start &
     # NOTE: moved to runbefore the Python unit tests, so we can use the model coverage report results in testing
     - name: "Code2fn model coverage reports"
       run: python skema/program_analysis/model_coverage_report/model_coverage_report.py $GITHUB_WORKSPACE/docs/coverage/code2fn_coverage/ all
@@ -149,7 +161,9 @@ jobs:
       run: |
         echo "SKEMA_RS_ADDESS: $SKEMA_RS_ADDESS"
         python -c "import requests; print(requests.get('$SKEMA_RS_ADDESS/version').text)"
-        SKEMA_RS_ADDRESS=$SKEMA_RS_ADDESS pytest -vvv
+        echo "SKEMA_MATHJAX_ADDRESS: $SKEMA_MATHJAX_ADDRESS"
+        python -c "import requests; print(requests.get('$SKEMA_MATHJAX_ADDRESS/version').text)"
+        SKEMA_RS_ADDESS=$SKEMA_RS_ADDESS SKEMA_MATHJAX_ADDRESS=$SKEMA_MATHJAX_ADDRESS pytest -vvv
 
     - name: "Unit tests for Rust components"
       working-directory: ./skema/skema-rs