WCPS’ supervisor of visual and performing arts named Barbara Ingram School for the Arts principal
Rob Hovermale, Washington County Public Schools’ supervisor of visual and performing arts, has been named the next principal for the Barbara Ingram School for the Arts, school system officials said.
Hovermale said he will start his new job June 1, working with current principal Michael Thorsen, who plans to retire at the end of June.
“I’m all excited. … It’s going to be great to get back into a school again and be part of a whole school culture,” Hovermale said Wednesday.
Hovermale, 49, of Smithsburg, has worked for the school system for 23 years.
He has been in the arts supervisory position for about 10 years. He said he was the band director at E. Russell Hicks Middle School during the 1990s.
Hovermale is a “gifted and talented artist himself and so we knew that Rob could come in and take that side of the house over, but Rob is also an academic. He’s somebody who understands instruction, so he can help with the instructional side,” Schools Superintendent Clayton Wilcox said.
Wilcox said Hovermale also has great relationships with organizations such as The Maryland Theatre and museums, sites where students
could exhibit their works.
The downtown Hagerstown arts school, which opened in 2009, had 258 students at the start of the school year. The high school offers dance, instrumental music, theater, visual arts, vocal music and literary arts.
The school system had 32 applicants for the job, school system officials said in April.
The job was advertised nationally, with a regional focus, Wilcox said.