About HHS

SCHOOL: Hanover High School is a comprehensive public high school of approximately 750 students. The school provides a broad range of offerings in English, math, social studies, languages, science and technology, in addition to an array of courses in the fine and applied arts. Approximately 13% of the student body consists of tuition students from outside the school district. The class of 2010 has 92% of its students now attending or scheduled to attend fou- year colleges, while another 4% will attend a two-year college or have other plans for post-secondary study.

MISSION STATEMENT: Hanover High School is an active learning community that provides broad academic and cocurricular programs. We engage students’ minds, hearts, and voices so that they become educated, caring and responsible adults. All students are given the opportunity and encouragement to use their:

  • minds to pursue excellence, academic challenge, and personal success

  • hearts to respect and care for the emotional and physical well being of themselves and others, and for the environment

  • voices to contribute to the democratic process and the common good.

PHILOSOPHY AND SCHOOL GOVERNANCE: Hanover High School is dedicated to the philosophy that students learn responsibility by being given the opportunity to exercise responsibility, that they learn decision making by having the opportunity to make decisions, and that they make the strongest commitment to education when they are given real power in managing that education. In keeping with the school's philosophy, students form a majority on the school governing body (the Council), which includes staff and community members; this assembly has decision-making

responsibility for many aspects of the school's daily operation. A sense of activism and community is

fostered among students, faculty and staff through the weekly Common Ground (homeroom/advisory) meetings.

Students at the high school are free to manage their own time when not in classes (there are no required study halls), and an open campus pass system allows students in good standing, with their parents' permission, to attend to needs off the school's premises. Students returning from college invariably point to these innovations, which foster maturity and responsibility, as a reason for their ready adjustment to college and for the significant success they achieve there. These same innovations would also appear to contribute to the high percentage of Hanover graduates who go on to complete their college education.

FACULTY: Of the 86 professional staff at Hanover High School, 72% hold at least a Master's degree, while 14% hold a Master's degree + 60 credits or a doctorate.

ACCREDITATION: Hanover High is fully accredited by the New England Association of Schools and Colleges.

COMMUNITY: Hanover High School serves the bi-state Dresden School District which includes the towns of Hanover, New Hampshire and Norwich, Vermont. As the home of Dartmouth College, the Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center, and a number of small high tech firms, Hanover and its environs offer cultural, educational and recreational benefits not often available in a town of approximately 11,000 residents.