HERMISTON — Students and teachers alike were facing new territory for Hermiston School District on Tuesday, Sept. 8, as they started their first day of “comprehensive distance learning.”

“In some sense, all of our teachers are new teachers this year,” Superintendent Tricia Mooney said.

Teachers spent two full weeks before the first day of school in professional development, working on adapting the teaching strategies they have used throughout their careers to a virtual venue. While there were some technical difficulties, Mooney said overall she felt the first couple of days of class had gone well.

She said it was fun to hear chatting and giggling between students during live sessions with their teachers.

“It’s been great to see our kids, even though we’re seeing them virtually,” she said.

Rocky Heights Elementary School Principal Stefani Wyant said she also felt the first two days of school had gone well, and described witnessing “joy” on the faces of teachers connecting with their students.

“The level of joy on behalf of our school community was still there,” she said. “It wasn’t gone because we were doing distance learning. Kids were still excited to see their teachers.”

She said there were some technical difficulties, but the district’s IT staff and other employees were being good about helping troubleshoot issues. She also said that she could see from the first day to the second day how teachers were able to focus on creative teaching methods as they got more comfortable with using the technology.

The district is still handing out Chromebooks to students who need them. Hermiston High School students will be able to drop by to pick up the devices from a drive-thru station in the school’s parking lot on Thursday, Sept. 10, from 9 a.m. to noon and 1-4 p.m.

Assistant Superintendent Bryn Browning said while she saw encouraging amounts of engagement from students and creativity from teachers, the first day of school also included a fair amount of troubleshooting. The district’s internet infrastructure held, she said, but some individual households were having connectivity problems that caused disruptions to audio and video, and other issues also cropped up.

“Sometimes we found a glitch with the Chromebook, so we issued a new Chromebook, or in some cases we had a misspelled name (for logging on),” she said.

Sometimes the issue was students just not being very familiar with using keyboard features, such as caps lock, she said, and in other cases parents didn’t realize that students who had gone to school in the district last year had to reenroll in order to be assigned a teacher and login information for the new school year.

She encouraged families having technical issues to contact the school district offices for assistance.

Mooney said enrollment always fluctuates the first two weeks of the school year as some families realize they need to enroll their child and others finally notify the district that they moved. But kindergarten enrollment, which stays the most steady during the first week, is down, she said.

HSD offered families enrolled in the district two choices this year. They could enroll in Hermiston Online!, a virtual academy where students will remain online all year. Or they could enroll in comprehensive distance learning, where students are assigned to a specific classroom in the district with the goal that they will physically attend that school with that teacher and those classmates they are now connected to online once the state gives the green light for in-person classes to resume.