Teacher Lori Kwee had spring in her step and a smile on her face as she stepped into her Ala Wai Elementary School classroom Tuesday morning.

After a difficult year coping with the uncertainty of the pandemic, the veteran teacher is happy to be back on campus and hoping for the kind of school year that is closer to what she’s used to — one where she is in her classroom addressing all of her third grade students face-to-face.

“I’m elated I get to see those smiles in person,” she said.

At the same time, she is fully aware that the COVID-19 pandemic is still chugging along and that there is work to be done in maintaining a safe classroom environment.

She said many of her colleagues begin the year with a bit of trepidation.

“There’s a lot of concern,” Kwee said. “We had our meeting and teachers are concerned. They’re saying, ‘What is the distancing?’ Because looking at a classroom of 19 to 20, there’s no way you can do that.”

Kwee is one of more than 11,000 public school teachers who reported to campus Wednesday to begin preparing for the first day of school on Tuesday.

State Department of Education officials reported that the day came and went with few, if any, major problems at the system’s 256 schools.

But it was too early for a full accounting of staffing levels or how Hawaii’s ongoing teacher shortage would affect the system, they said.

The DOE’s teacher-vacancy rate as of December was 2.7% — or 364 vacancies.

The Hawaii State Teachers Association also reported no major issues, although union leaders did register a complaint about several schools holding faculty meetings in libraries and other tight spaces when the department’s health and safety handbook says staff meetings should be held virtually when possible.

“Teachers are worried as the (virus) numbers go up, and to cram faculty in libraries and other spaces where the windows don’t open doesn’t make sense,” said Osa Tui Jr., HSTA president.

Tui said many teachers are excited to return to the classroom and will do everything they can to make it as safe as possible. But they also face evolving classroom health protocols and recommendations.

“It can be very confusing,” he said.

Kwee, last year’s Hawaii State Teacher of the Year, said she couldn’t be happier to be back in the classroom preparing for full in-person learning after what happened in 2020.

“It was a year like no other,” she said.

Ala Wai shut out its student body and went to full computer distance learning, with the faculty teaching from school.

The most vulnerable students, including English-as-a-second-language kids, were welcomed back to the classroom first, followed by the rest of the student body. At Ala Wai, half of the students returned to the campus and the other half chose to continue distance learning.

Despite her best efforts to make her online lessons interactive, engaging and enjoyable, she and her colleagues saw the toll the isolation had on her students — in learning loss and their mental health.

“They were nervous,” she said of her young students. “It was an uncertain time, so we were there as their supports to reassure them.

Kwee said the demands on teachers grew mightily.

“It was a harder work,” she said, “but it was joyous work. It was passionate work. Everyone stepped up. That’s why we’re in the field we do. I never felt it was too overwhelming. It came with love, and stepped up.”

There were even positive sides to the pandemic, she said. Communication and relationships with parents were never stronger in her 32 years of teaching.

“We would text them. We called them on phones. I would get phone calls from them, emails,” Kwee said. “And we got a peek into birthdays, anniversaries, losing teeth, new siblings being born — unfortunately jobs lost but jobs garnered. I bonded with the parents, even more so last year.

It was pretty quiet on a campus with no children. But when the students finally came back, Kwee was filled with emotion.

“They would line up (to enter school) and you would feel that energy and robustness of the campus.

“To see the children come back on campus for so long, I teared up, because it’s so emotional. Part of teaching, part of human interaction, is being together.”

Kwee is looking forward to that togetherness this year but she knows there is a heavy weight on her shoulders to maintain a safe classroom.

Kwee said she plans to strictly enforce the mask mandate, especially since no one under 12 is yet allowed to be vaccinated.

“We have to be really cognizant and aware that this delta is highly contagious and more transmissible with our youth,” she said.

Kwee said she and her colleagues are dealing with social distancing challenges by being creative and employing outdoor spaces to stretch the classroom.

It helps that Kwee’s airy classroom has large banks of openable windows on opposing walls that capture the tradewinds nicely. Double doors can be opened up, and four large fans enhance the circulation. Ventilation is not a problem.

Kwee isn’t overly concerned about catching the disease herself.

“I’m vaccinated,” she said. “I do have concerns, but the key is to keep your face mask on and having guidelines and expectations in place for the students. It’s imperative that we care for each other and our families.”