Panther Valley School District held its first day of school on Tuesday, with about one in three students taking part in full online learning.

School officials said it was refreshing to see students back in school, following the health and safety plan which was enacted by the district over the summer.

“Our staff, principals, administrative team and custodians did a great job preparing a safe learning environment for our students,” Superintendent David McAndrew Jr. said.

This year, for the first time, the district is providing a laptop to every student, whether they attend in-person, or online. The district purchased the laptops with its Federal CARES act funding which was meant to provide extra resources for schools to deal with the ongoing pandemic.

McAndrew said that the goal for the first few days is to share expectations for the year, and get students familiar with the new technology.

In-person students spent part of the first day learning to log into their laptops, in anticipation of receiving them later this week.

“It’s been six months since they were out to school. We want to, more than anything, bring normalcy back to them as they start the learning process,” McAndrew said.

Panther Valley teachers are teaching a mix of in-person and online classes. Teachers will record some of their lessons and post them online for students learning at home through the Panther Valley Learning Network.

After in-person students are dismissed, teachers will go online and teach live lessons for students at home. They will also hold office hours to help students who are learning at home. To start the year roughly 35 percent of students have chosen full online learning.

Students and parents said they were excited to return to the classroom for the first time since March, and return to the familiarity of school.

Kendal Hertzog was ready for her first day of kindergarten well before the school bell rang.

“She was up this morning at 7 a.m., 5 minutes later, ‘here I am, I’m ready, let’s go.’ I said ‘school doesn’t start till 8:30,’?” her grandmother, Kerrie Wilder, said.

At her afternoon bus stop, Kendal said the day was a success. She likes her teacher and enjoyed story time.

“I felt happy,” she said.

Nathalie Propson said that online learning worked for her and her daughter for a short time in the spring, but she realized that she would be better off learning in the classroom.

She said she has faith in the health and safety plans put in place by the district, with classrooms laid out to promote social distancing. She said she also appreciates that many parents chose full-time online learning, because it creates more space for social distancing.

“While that wasn’t my preference, there are fewer people in the building, which is nice,” she said.

Fifth-grader Jayden DeAlbertis said the first day was a little different, with students having to wear masks and maintain distance in the hallways. He said he preferred attending in person to learning online.

“I wanted to see my friends, see my new teachers,” DeAlbertis said.