Frequently Asked Questions

Contact your grade level counselor for general needs or questions that are NOT specific to course content. All content related questions should be directed to content teachers (i.e., math, science, etc.). You will see your student’s counselor listed under Classes after logging into the OMHS. A list of VAVA staff, including all content teachers, can be found by clicking the Meet your Middle School Team tab on the Middle School Website.

Due to time spent teaching classes and working with students, the easiest way to reach VAVA staff is through email. To send a new email to your teacher or counselor, click on the mail icon at the top right of your OMHS homepage. Click Contact My Teachers and then click Send Message beside the teacher you wish to email. 

Please include student first/last name, student ID, grade and course in all emails sent to teachers so they can assist you quickly.

The next best way to contact staff is by phone or text. Staff typically let phone calls go to voicemail and return them as soon as they are able by the end of the next school day. Please limit phone calls and texts to your counselor/teachers to 8am to 5pm Monday through Friday. Phone numbers are available in the Contact My Teachers area of the OMHS.

Occasionally you will have an issue and will need to reach out to someone other than your teacher or counselor. For example, certain technology questions should be directed to STRIDE/K12 support (866.512.2273 or https://www.help.k12.com/s/) and problems with internet connectivity should be discussed with your internet provider.

Students and LCs should check email at least twice daily, once at the beginning of the school day and again when student's complete the day’s work. Note that learning coaches automatically receive a copy of any message sent to a student as well as a copy of any message their student sends.

Middle School teachers meet learning coaches and students as follows:

• At the beginning of the school year:

o Students who are new to VAVA’s Middle School will receive a phone call from staff.

o All returning 7th and 8th graders will attend required live informational sessions and receive phone calls upon request.

• Throughout the school year at the request of the counselor, content area teacher, administrator, student or learning coach

Counselors and content area teachers will maintain consistent communication throughout the school year. Teachers will request conferences with students and Learning Coaches whenever the need arises. Teachers also call Learning Coaches and students upon request. Please contact your teacher any time you feel a conference is in order and know that she will be in touch with you if a conference is necessary.

OMHS stands for the Online Middle and High School and is the platform your student will use to do their schoolwork. 

Students and learning coaches should log into the OMHS each school day. Once logged in, your daily/weekly schedule of live Class Connect sessions as well as asynchronous OMHS lessons will be available.

Please check each class page, including your homeroom page, for important updates and announcements. All work assigned for the day should be completed with an adequate amount of time spent on them, and students should attend all required Class Connect sessions.

A Learning Coach’s role is an important one. Your job is to guide your student as they work through the curriculum. Please support your student without providing too much assistance. Your counselor is happy to help you define your role more clearly if you have questions.

Spend a little time each day preparing for the next day’s schoolwork by looking ahead in your student’s plan, gathering materials, and setting aside time for all work to be completed. As your student completes lessons in the OMHS, be sure they have a thorough understanding of each lesson by reviewing the material with them before they take an assessment. We have included Learning Coach Resources on our VAVA Middle School website to help support you with important dates, video tutorials, the school calendar and so much more.

The OMHS provides students a view of both a daily and a weekly plan. This is where they will see all the class connects they need to attend and what assignments need to be completed each day and within the school week. Follow the plan outlined by each course teacher, and you will always be on track.

Students are allowed 2 attempts on all quizzes/assignments. Students may retake quizzes/assignments after reviewing content on their own, re-watching Class Connect recordings and/or attending teacher office hours for support. The student should have a better understanding of the material before trying the quiz/assignment a second time.

Students will have 1 attempt on Unit Assessments. An additional attempt on a Unit Assessment may be granted for students who complete the retake procedure shared by their teacher. Please see the course syllabus or contact your content teacher for more information on the Unit Assessment retake policy specific to the individual course.

Once in a while you might encounter an error when working in the OMHS. Perhaps the answer choice your child selected while working in a lesson is not an option, and you verified their response is correct. Maybe you found that the questions in a textbook exercise do not match up with the online answer key provided for Learning Coaches. STRIDE/K12 wants to know! Your feedback helps STRIDE/K12 correct errors and improve their online courses. You can submit feedback to STRIDE/K12 any time, and you do not need to be working within the unit or lesson you wish to address to do so.

To submit feedback to STRIDE/K12, click on Feedback in the upper right corner of your course screen. Fill out the form to provide the required information.

Sometimes the OMHS may not be available for short periods of time, but there is no need to panic. Whenever possible, staff will contact you by email to let you know about an outage.

Your student can work offline by completing items in their paper materials provided at the beginning of the school year. Instead of panicking and calling their teachers, you can log into a STRIDE/K12 help site to determine if the system is experiencing an outage. Visit System Outage Alerts .

If no outage is reported, please do some troubleshooting of your own to ensure internet connectivity. You may wish to contact STRIDE/K12 directly for support if you continue to have issues: 866.512.2273 or https://www.help.k12.com/s/.

Class Connect sessions are live, synchronous classes held in virtual classrooms with certified Virginia Virtual Academy teachers. Mandatory classes provide direct instruction, supplementing OMHS lessons/coursework, and help ensure students are prepared for state mandated end-of-year testing in the spring. Students join regularly scheduled classes by clicking on the link in their OMHS. 

To see your student’s Class Connect schedule click on My Schedule on the left side of the OMHS homepage. You can filter by day or week on the right side of the screen. Click on Week to see all the sessions for the week. You are encouraged to create and post a copy of your student’s weekly schedule in your workspace as a reminder of days/times when classes meet.

All Middle School students attend required Class Connect sessions for the following subjects: Math, ELA, Science, Social Studies. Note: Students enrolled in High School credit Spanish must attend required live Class Connect sessions for that course.

VAVA Middle School students may attend optional Class Connect sessions for the following subjects as well:

• Art

• PE/Health

• Music

All sessions, optional and required, will appear on the Class Connect schedule in the OMHS. Students will be able to identify required vs. optional sessions by paying close attention to the name of the Class Connect session.

Class Connect schedules will be made available at the beginning of the school year. Students will receive an email notification when schedules are available. The email notification will also include information regarding how to request a class change due to an unavoidable conflict. 

NOTE: If a student has a required and an optional Class Connect session scheduled at the same time, the student must attend the required session.

If your student has two required Class Connect sessions at the same time or overlap, please contact the student’s counselor immediately. We will move them into another section to ensure their required Class Connect sessions don’t conflict.

As mentioned above, if a student has a required and an optional Class Connect session scheduled at the same time, the student must attend the required session.

All VAVA students are required to attend their required Class Connect sessions and complete associated engagement activities assigned by each teacher. Students who miss a required Class Connect session are required to (1) view the recording of the session within one week of the live session date and (2) complete the engagement activity by the teacher deadline. Doing so enables students to benefit from VAVA teacher instruction and prevents them from falling behind. 

Engagement comprises 15% of the student’s semester grade for each course. For more attendance information please visit our attendance page. 

Check out this video for a step-by-step guide on how to access all OMHS recordings. 

Some assignments in the OMHS may require the use of Microsoft Office. We provide access to our students to this. Please go to STRIDE/K12 Microsoft Office to get all the information you need. 

Please click here for Stride/K12 computer technical requirements. All students are required to have computers equipped

with working microphones, speakers and webcams.

Please note, tablets and hand-held smart devices are not compatible with our platform.