Hanover High School Summer Updates 8/10/22

Good morning everyone! I hope you are all having a great summer!

Announcements and Upcoming Events

  • Meghan Campia is the new Special Education Administrator at HHS. Mrs. Campia will be a great addition to our staff! She comes to us by way of Canton Public Schools and Vermont. She has vast experience in Special Education and has already been working during the summer to become familiar with HHS.
  • Nick Hannigan is going to be our new Dean of Students! Many of you are already familiar with Mr. Hannigan as one of our talented PE/Wellness teachers, and also as Coach Hannigan of our Varsity Boys Basketball team. We now welcome him as part of our Main Office staff and you will be seeing a lot more of him as he will be assisting us with all sorts of student affairs. Dean Hannigan’s office will be located right near the Main Office.
  • Julie O’Neil, Guidance Counselor, has taken another position at a high school nearer to where she lives. We wish her the best of luck in her career! Due to this, and other staffing movements in Guidance, we will have a new alphabetical student breakdown for the upcoming school year. Please know that your Guidance Counselor assignments may shift, the new assignments will be posted shortly once all hiring has taken place.
  • We welcome Barbara Doherty as our new secretary for the Guidance Department. Barbara comes to us with experience from working in other high school Guidance departments so she is very familiar with all tasks associated with her position. Welcome aboard Barbara!

School Improvements

In order to better support a safe and secure school, HHS has worked in conjunction with the Hanover Department of Public Works, Facilities Division, to install sliding gates on all student restrooms. These gates are meant to be discreet when not in use, and they afford our administration and staff the ability to better monitor restrooms and prevent the behaviors that not only violate school rules (vandalism, vaping, loitering, etc.), but that also make many students feel uncomfortable when using the restrooms.

Please know that the gates will be monitored by staff, locked and unlocked according to a staff supervision schedule and that there will always be sufficient restrooms available to students. For the past several years, we have closed restrooms in an alternating format for security purposes without the proper equipment. This is not a major change to our protocols, just better equipment. With the visibility of the new gates, I want to offer this explanation in advance to assuage any concerns. Since this is our 1st year utilizing the gates, it might not be perfect. If any changes need to be made to our protocols during the year to improve this process, we will make those decisions accordingly.

Why now, you may ask? During the design of the new HHS over ten years ago, restroom doors were not a part of the building design, instead, they opted for airport-style restroom entrances. We were in different times then, with different challenges. These gates will now assist us with student safety and security concerns that require our response with as little inconvenience as possible. Photos are attached to this message.

Reminders

All HHS students should know that the Community Service Graduation Requirement will be in effect for the upcoming school year. All students must serve 10 hours of Community Service per school year. We currently have summer community service options available, if interested, please email Mrs. Foster at nfoster@hanoverschools.org.

Information regarding Fall athletic opportunities was sent by Athletic Director, Scott Hutchison, on July 15, 2022. Preliminary information can be accessed on the athletics page of the Hanover High School website or you can contact our Scott Hutchison directly at shutchison@hanoverschools.org.

Freshmen Orientation will be on Thursday, August 25th from 1:00 pm to 2:30 pm. We ask that all Freshmen report directly to the auditorium at that time.

Guidance counselors will be available for students at HHS in person on August 23rd, 24th, and 25th from 9:00 am to 2:00 pm.

Our 1st day of school will be Tuesday, September 6th, which is also Election Day, so please know that there will be a great deal of traffic on that day as HHS will be used as a voting site.

HHS Picture Day will be on Wednesday, September 7th.

Enjoy your summer!

Matt Mattos
Principal

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