Online school leadership (OSL) is of particular interest given the growing number of online education opportunities. As school districts develop more online and blended learning programs, particularly for secondary students, the need to examine leadership in these programs is paramount. The literature suggests that while there are many studies that focus on effective leadership in brick and mortar schools, research that focuses specifically on leadership in online programs is limited. In this study, we aimed to explore teachers' perceptions of leadership in online secondary schools in two districts. Our questions focused on secondary teachers' experiences with leaders in their online schools and their perceptions of what makes for effective leadership practices. Using phenomenology, we interviewed six teachers, analyzed for descriptive codes and clustered these codes into three categories to represent teachers' perceptions of effective OSL: sense of community, organizational learning, and empowerment. Based on these results, we suggest that OSL consists of both foundational and contextualized leadership practices, and that both are necessary for effective OSL. This research has implications for educational leadership broadly, but specifically for leadership in online and virtual schools.