The Hermiston School District wrapped up its first out-of-state graduation on June 7, successfully getting 342 students across the stage at the Toyota Center in Kennewick. Now, school officials are taking stock of the event, and considering their options going forward.

Though most acknowledged that the high school gymnasium could no longer hold the growing graduating classes, many debates preceded the move to a Washington state graduation, including looking at holding the ceremony at several Hermiston venues, such as Kennison Field or the Eastern Oregon Trade and Event Center, before the school board voted 6-1 to move the ceremony across the river.

Hermiston High School principal Tom Spoo said he was satisfied with the ceremony, and that things had gone largely as planned.

“Almost to a T,” he said. “The only thing that didn’t go the way I intended was simply time. The kids ended up speaking a little longer than anticipated, I went a little longer. Outside that, it went well.”

Spoo said he started the ceremony a few minutes late because of another unexpected issue — traffic coming from Hermiston to Kennewick.

“We didn’t anticipate it being that bad,” he said. “The kids got there a little late. We were ready to go by seven, but I felt that there were still parents that weren’t there.”

The other issue, he said, was getting the crowd of more than 4,000 reunited with their graduates after the ceremony.

“The reception outside was unbelievably crowded,” he said. “We would need to plan that differently.”

Spoo said he, the board and interim superintendent Tricia Mooney have yet to discuss where they will hold graduation next year.

“I think we assess,” he said. “That decision has not taken place, and I don’t know when it will.”

Spoo said he and Mooney did a lot of planning leading up to the event, both in training the students and collaborating with Washington schools superintendents that already held their graduations at the center.

“I was very keen on wanting this to go very well,” Spoo said. “No matter how well it goes, there’s always going to be naysayers. So I was very adamant with the kids that I wanted this to go well, and we wanted to be respectful.”

Spoo said with many logistical issues, they had to start from scratch.

“Transportation was a big, big deal,” Spoo said. “It’s not something we’d ever dealt with at graduation before. I can’t tell you how many times I changed the leave times, the load times.”

They also had to provide transportation for the band and its equipment, as well as for families who didn’t have a way to get up there.

He said about 20 family members rode the bus that the district provided.

He said they had to make certain changes to the ceremony as well, which included some slightly stricter rules.

“We’ve always kind of allowed the kids to be kids again, throw their caps and use silly string. But up there, it’s not something that was allowed. In many cases, they go right from one graduation to another,” he said. “I worked on the seniors all year, that this isn’t our house.”

Spoo said they compromised, and as the seniors turned their tassels, administrators tossed several beach balls into the sea of graduates.

“We wanted to do something fun,” he said.

While the Toyota Center handled most of the setup, including providing chairs for the graduates and podiums for the speakers, there were some changes in the procedure, including the way the graduates were photographed, and coordinating with the Project Graduation planners, who host the class graduation party.

Some factors unique to the Toyota Center came into play, too. Audience members could get up during the ceremony and purchase snacks and drinks.

Spoo said he hadn’t considered whether that was a distraction from the ceremony.

“Maybe because I wasn’t thinking about that piece of it,” he said. “I saw people moving, but any kind of noise never bothered me.”