WAYNESBORO – A view from the window in Dr. Allie Kopco’s office gives her perspective of a world far beyond Waynesboro Area Senior High School.
“This role allows you to have an impact, to facilitate decisions that empower students,” said Kopco, named principal in June for the 2025-26 school year. “The more we do that, the more it allows them to find out what success they can have in the world and their own fulfillment.
“I always have the mindset that I try to listen to teachers and the administrative team and keep an open door. I want to make sure the staff knows that I want to know what’s going on and if they are having any issues,” she added.
The Waynesboro native speaks from experience – as a 2000 graduate of Waynesboro High, she has walked these halls before.
Kopco was assistant principal at the school for 10 years starting in 2015 and prior to that, assistant principal at Waynesboro Area Middle School from 2012 to 2015.
Teaching was actually a second career choice for Kopco, who earned a bachelor’s degree in business administration from The College of William and Mary, cum laude, in 2004.
“My undergrad degree was in marketing, and I got out and worked in that field for a while … newspaper advertising sales for a year and a half. Sales was not for me.” Kopco said she never really thought about teaching but learned of a program at Frostburg State University where you could earn a master’s degree and teaching certificate in one year. “After the information night I decided, ‘I’m going to do this.’”
“God definitely had a plan, because that’s where I met Chris, my husband. We were in the same program, and we both got jobs at E. Russell Hicks Middle School in Hagerstown. He was there for five years, and I was there for six.”
Chris Kopco is the environmental literacy and STEM (Science, Engineering, Technology and Mathematics) coordinator for Washington County Public Schools. He also is principal of Claud E. Kitchens Outdoor School at Fairview and oversees the William Brish Planetarium, both in Hagerstown. They married in 2006 and have two children, Jace, 14, and Noelle, 11.
Kopco said her tenure at the middle school was “a good challenge, but still a challenge. This is a time of kids’ lives when there is a lot of upheaval. Some students sail right through, and for a lot of students, this is a difficult time,” she observed. “They go from a sheltered elementary school setting, seeing the same kids all day, and where there’s a lot of hand holding.
“At middle school, they have a lot more freedom and independence and are exposed to more technology. They’re figuring out their own status, what they’re all about, and they have to balance that with academics. It’s important to support students during that process and support teachers as well. They are on ground level every day. It takes a special person to be a middle school teacher. Some of the students I worked with who came through difficult situations are now gainfully employed and parents,” she added.
Kopco exudes gratefulness when recalling the experience of functioning as the grade level principal for the Class of 2019 at Waynesboro High. The position involves working with the students throughout their attendance at the middle or high school. “This allows you to get to know the kids and parents … to have those relationships,” she noted.
“Because I transitioned from the middle to the high school at just the right time, I was with these students from the time they were in seventh grade to graduation. To see them cross the stage in the stadium – it was such a beautiful night – I felt that connection.”
Kopco succeeded Dr. Diane McCallum, who was at the helm of the high school before being named assistant superintendent this year.
“She is a mentor and created a lot of great processes at the high school that I’m trying to continue. Things are going really well here. I’m not going to fix something that’s not broken,” added Kopco, who earned a doctorate in educational leadership from Frostburg in 2022. “Dr. McCallum has a saying, that I am paraphrasing, ‘I want the very best opportunities for my children, and I want that for all students going out in the world’ and I believe that too.”
“There are a lot of great experiences available to students at the high school,” she added. “The district’s First Choice model is our guiding principle and it involves various pillars, including academic, careers – where students are exposed to internships, job shadowing and work experience, and looking at the ‘whole child,’ the overall well being of students, such as social and emotional aspects, so that they are as healthy as possible to focus on academics and career choices.”
Kopco said it helps that son Jace, a freshman, “gives me students’ views on things. I can always count on him for very honest feedback.
“You’re not always going to make everyone happy. That’s true of any leadership role or any position. But I want to make sure people feel valued and heard. I feel very blessed. I truly enjoy every day I spend here.”
