Adams County school district welcomes new superintendent Larry Hook across schools

Larry Hook’s name was placed across Adams County Ohio Valley School District school pages even as the district’s contact page still listed Dawn Wallace as superintendent, a sign that the leadership handoff was still being assembled in public view.

The welcome message appeared on the district news feed with a May 4, 2026 date and also showed up on West Union Elementary School, West Union High School and the Ohio Valley Career & Technical Center. That district-wide placement matters in a county system that serves West Union, North Adams and Peebles, because the superintendent is the public face for decisions that affect staffing, transportation, classroom expectations and confidence in the schools.

The district’s superintendent search page had already laid out the transition timeline. The Board of Education was seeking qualified applicants, K-12 Business Consulting was assisting with the search, the application deadline was April 20, 2026, and the new superintendent was expected to take office on or before Aug. 1, 2026. That same page identified Greg Grooms as interim superintendent, showing the district is still operating through a temporary leadership period while the permanent handoff takes shape.

For families, the most immediate change has been administrative visibility rather than policy. The district’s contact page still listed Wallace, while the welcome post promoted Hook, suggesting not every corner of the district’s online presence had moved at the same pace. The Central Administrative Office remains listed at 141 Lloyd Rd., West Union, Ohio 45693, with the ACOVSD Conference Center at 1221 Lloyd Road in West Union and the bus garage at 4595 Tri-County Road in Seaman, Ohio. Those separate sites reflect how spread out district operations are across Adams County.

The governance structure around Hook is already in place. The board page names five members, with David Riley as president and Sally McDaniel as vice president. Other district leadership listed on the staff pages includes Treasurer Sherri Spencer and Assistant Superintendent and K-12 Curriculum Coordinator Katrina Wagoner. Those names frame the decisions Hook will inherit: a countywide district, a board-led search that is still visible on the website, and a public communications system that now has to align across schools, offices and support sites.

The first test of the transition may be less about a single announcement than about whether the district can present one clear chain of command before the Aug. 1 start date. For Adams County parents, staff and students, the welcome to Larry Hook was not just a greeting. It marked the start of a leadership change that still has several moving parts to settle.