Student Handbook - Harford County Public Schools

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About Harford County Public Schools Approximately 38,000 students are enrolled in Harford County’s public schools. The school system has the eighth largest student enrollment of the 24 public school systems in Maryland. Approximately 5,500 people are employed by the school system to provide the necessary educaonal programs and supporng services for the students. Currently, in the Harford County public school system, there are 33 elementary schools, nine middle schools, nine comprehensive high schools, the John Archer School (a special school for students with disabilies), Harford Technical High School and the Alternave Educaon Program -- making a total of 54 schools. Based upon firm beliefs in the value of youth and the obligaons of public educaon to educate each of them effecvely, the Harford County public school system provides comprehensive instruconal programs and related student acvies for the youth who are currently enrolled. Prekindergarten classes are available for four-year-olds at 19 of the Harford County public elementary schools. A system-wide kindergarten program begins public educaon for the fiveyear-olds with all 33 elementary schools offering all-day kindergarten. A carefully planned and appropriately sequenced curriculum extends learning from the primary and intermediate grades of elementary, middle and high school grades toward graduaon. Special programs and services are provided to accommodate the unique needs of each student, including those who possess exceponal abilies, talents, and/or disabilies. Mission The mission of Harford County Public Schools is to promote excellence in instruconal leadership and teaching and to provide facilies and instruconal materials that support teaching and learning for the 21st century. The Harford County Board of Educaon will support this mission by fostering a climate for deliberate change and monitoring progress through measurable indicators. Vision Harford County Public Schools will be a community of learners in which our public schools, families, public officials, businesses, community organizaons, and other cizens work collaboravely to prepare all of our students to succeed academically and socially in a diverse, democrac, change-oriented, and global society. HCPS 2012-13 Teacher of the Year Chrisna O’Neill has served the students, staff and community of Harford County for the last 18 years. She has served as a teacher, reading specialist, literacy leader and volunteer with HCPS. Mrs. O’Neill earned her Bachelor of Arts degree in English from the College of Notre Dame in 1993, a Masters of Educaon from Loyola College in 1997 and administrave cerficaon from Towson University in 2003. At the local, state, and naonal levels, she has presented on issues related to leading and learning, school improvement and state assessments. Currently, Mrs. O’Neill is a member of the Instruconal Leadership and School Improvement teams at Bel Air Middle School. She volunteers her me and resources to iniate school-based service learning projects such as a leer wring campaign to the United States Military, collecng items for the Johns Hopkins Children’s Center and parcipang in the American Heart Associaon’s Hoops for Heart iniave. Mrs. O’Neill also organizes a book breakfast for the enre Bel Air Middle School staff in January, giving teachers a chance to share and exchange current books, create reading profiles to engage students as readers and donate books to women’s shelters and other organizaons. In addion to her role in the classroom, Mrs. O’Neill teaches Sunday school at her church and serves as a parent liaison for the Monkton Country Day Care Center. Visit www. hcps.org for details on the Harford County Public Schools Teacher of the Year program and don’t forget to check out Mrs. O’Neill’s blog! Superintendent’s Pen Dear Community: This handbook is published each year to provide parents, students, and employees of Harford County Public Schools with essenal informaon. It includes the school system rules and regulaons, school calendar, and other pernent informaon, as well as artwork by some of our outstanding students. I trust you will find the contents of this handbook to be informave and useful. Included in this handbook are instrucons on how to get answers to quesons or concerns that may arise. Addional assistance may be obtained by calling 410-838-7300 and by logging on to the Harford County Public Schools website at www.hcps. org. Also, the school system and individual schools will connue to employ a rapid telephone noficaon system this year to convey emergency and other important informaon to parents. The school system will also connue an email informaon system which you can opt into by lisng a valid email address on the emergency card that comes home with your child on the first day of school or ulizing our new parent portal. More informaon on the email, text, and phone system may be obtained by logging on to our website. I wish your child and you a successful 2012-2013 school year. Sincerely, Robert M. Tomback, Ph.D. Superintendent of Schools Items listed in this handbook are subject to change without noce aer the July 1, 2012 prinng date. 2
School Information The following informaon is school-based pracces, policies and informaon. For more informaon visit, www.hcps.org. HOURS OF OPERATION STARTING TIME DISMISSAL High Schools 7:30 a.m. 2:00 p.m. Middle Schools* 8:15 a.m. 2:45 p.m. Elementary Schools** 9:00 a.m. 3:30 p.m. John Archer 9:00 a.m. 3:00 p.m. Prekindergarten a.m. session*** 9:00 a.m. 11:30 a.m. Prekindergarten p.m. session*** 1:00 p.m. 3:30 p.m. * North Harford Middle School will connue to operate on the same schedule as North Harford High School. ** Havre de Grace, William S. James, and Deerfield elementary schools will operate on the 4th er busing schedule, 9:30 a.m. unl 4:00 p.m. *** 4th er busing schedule for prekindergarten, 9:30 a.m. - noon; 1:30 p.m. - 4:00 p.m. ALTERNATIVE EDUCATION A program of alternave educaon is provided at the Center for Educaonal Opportunity. Secondary school students who have longterm suspensions from school are eligible to enroll in the alternave educaon program and will receive credit for sasfactorily completed work. In addion, secondary school students whose educaonal, emoonal, financial, physical or other needs are such that they cannot be met in the regular school program are eligible to apply for admission to the alternave program. COMMUNICATION Harford County Public Schools is commied to parental, family and community involvement in the educaonal process. Harford County Public Schools encourages two-way communicaon and strives to keep the public informed about issues affecng its schools, decisions made by the Board of Educaon of Harford County and student acvies through various methods of regular communicaon. Rapid Noficaon System New this year, Harford County Public Schools will launch the Blackboard Connect 5 phone noficaon system. Parents will now be able to manage contact informaon and noficaon preferences by ulizing the Parent Portal. Parent’s can access the new Parent Portal by vising www.hcps.org. More informaon and Parent Portal instrucons can be found on the school system website. Website & Social Media The school system’s website, www.hcps.org, offers informaon to meet the needs of parents, students, staff and the general community. The “Parents” tab at the top of the homepage includes links to useful informaon such as registraon informaon, brochures, immunizaon requirements, academic programs and calendars, as well as athlec and arts informaon. This page serves as a quick resource to the mostrequested informaon for you. Android and iPhone users should check out our mobile site for announcements, downloadable calendars for smartphone users and quick links. Follow us on Facebook, Twier and LinkedIn. ELEMENTARY SCHOOL Harford County Public Schools offers a wide variety of programs at the elementary level including gied educaon, summer school and instrumental music. We have prekindergarten programs in 19 of our elementary schools designed to meet the needs of at-risk students. There are 21 before and aer school on-site daycare centers available for the community. All of our kindergarten programs are full-day. For more detailed informaon on elementary school offerings in your aendance area, please visit individual school Edline pages on www.hcps.org. FOOD & NUTRITION School food prices are subject to change pending an annual review of revenue/expenses. All Harford County Public Schools conduct breakfast and lunch programs. Menus are distributed through the schools, published in local newspapers, announced over local radio and television staons, and are on the Harford County Public Schools website (www.hcps.org). The cost of lunch appears on the menu and is subject to change. Parcipaon in the Federal Government School Food & Nutrion Program has also made it possible to provide some Harford County Public Schools students with free or reduced price meals. Applicaon forms and guidelines for determining a student’s eligibility to receive free or reduced price meals are distributed to each child in August. One applicaon can be completed for the enre household when all family members are listed. Applicaons for the program are available in school offices and parents may apply for benefits at any me during the school year. Cafeterias are equipped with computers, which allow parents to deposit money which may be specified for prepaid breakfasts, lunches, or snack items. Deposits can be made directly to the cafeteria staff or online at the following website: www.cafeprepay.com. If you do not designate whether your deposit is for a specific amount of breakfasts, lunches, or a specific dollar amount for a la carte, then 3
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Page 13 and 14: D. All make-up work will be graded
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Page 17 and 18: • Degrees and awards received;
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Page 21 and 22: days by the superintendent of schoo
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Student Handbook - Harford County Public Schools

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