Dear Online School Community:
On behalf of the entire faculty and staff, welcome to Hanover County Online School!
It is with great pleasure that I welcome you to Hanover County Online School - Home of the OWLs! On behalf of our entire leadership team, faculty and staff, please know that we are so happy to have you and are very excited to work and learn with you this year!
This year I have the honor of serving as online school principal. I am joined by an assistant principal and a senior teacher for special education. Please visit our School Administration page for a complete list of our leadership team.
If you are a returning OWL, welcome back! We will rely on you to help our newest OWLs get to know the “nest” and have a successful year! We are excited about the continued opportunities our smaller school will present to allow us to work on a closer level with teachers, students, and families.
Perhaps the biggest difference you’ll see is that we are serving grades 4–12. We will continue to focus on engagement and camera usage for all students. While teachers will continue to be sensitive to any challenges students may face with camera use, students will be required to utilize their cameras in every class each day. This will allow teachers to more closely monitor students for engagement in learning tasks and to provide “real time” assistance and feedback to students as they work.
Elementary students will have a similar structure to the school day. We are excited that resource classes will continue to be provided “live”. This means that our school day will look similar to that of face-to-face schools with synchronous/live instruction occurring both before and after lunch. Students and families should plan for a full day of school from 8:00 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.
The most important thing is to remember the foundational characteristics of our school:
- Relationships come first.
- Extending grace to one another is essential.
- Every single one of our students has enormous potential, and the faculty and staff of HCOS has the skill and talent to find and nurture this potential.
This online family/student handbook is intended to provide an overview of our school and is a supplement to the HCPS code of student conduct. Please read both documents carefully and refer to them throughout the school year. And please remember, the OWL faculty and staff are always here to support you!
Kindly,
Stacy Stanford
Principal, Hanover County Online School