Virginia Beach School Superintendent Aaron Spence will resign to take the same position with the Loudoun County school division in Northern Virginia.
The announcement came after the Loudoun County School Board formally voted on the matter Friday evening.
“It is a great professional opportunity,” Spence said. “I think some of the things I have learned here and helped lead Virginia Beach through will help me go up there and really work with their community to kind of find common purpose and really celebrate and lift up their schools and provide great opportunities for their kids.”
The Loudoun County School Board approved Spence becoming the next school board chair in a 6-2 vote. Board Chair Ian Serotkin said Spence “fit the bill perfectly.”
The School Board fired superintendent Scott Ziegler in December following the unsealing of a report by a special grand jury looking into how the division’s administration handled two sexual assaults by the same student, according to Loudoun Now reporting.
Spence said he believes Loudoun County Public Schools has faced challenges, much like other school divisions, and this includes his predecessor’s departure. As a leader, he said he plans to “look through the windshield, not the review mirror,” and help the community and division move forward. To do so, he said his goal is to help rebuild a culture of trust, transparency and collaboration.
The Loudoun County school division has become one of the focal points in debates about social issues. In his campaign, Gov. Glenn Youngkin frequently criticized the division. On his first day in office, he signed an executive order authorizing the attorney general to investigate the sexual assaults.
The father of one of the girls who were sexually assaulted in a high school bathroom was arrested in June 2022 during a meeting, and he is now attempting to appeal his conviction for disorderly conduct, according to Loudoun Now reporting.
Spence has been with the Virginia Beach school system since June 2014. Prior to taking the helm of the largest school system in the region, he was superintendent for Moore County Schools in North Carolina and chief high schools officer in Houston.
Coming to Virginia Beach was a homecoming for the Green Run High School alumnus. Spence said this decision is “very bittersweet” and was difficult to make to grow in his profession and “accept new challenges,” but after nine years with the Virginia Beach school division, it “feels right for me and my family.”
Spence was named the 2018 Virginia Superintendent of the Year by the Virginia Association of School Superintendents. According to the VBCPS website, all 86 schools have been accredited for four consecutive years under his leadership.
Though Spence said there is much to be proud of over the last nine years, a few accomplishments he noted included the implementation of all-day kindergarten, the development of the Environment Studies Program and the Entrepreneurship and Business Academy.
He also implemented the student and teacher advisory committees and said he expanded the division’s family and community engagement efforts to hear from families on “how to better support them.
“I feel tremendously proud of the work that I’ve done here, and I feel like Virginia Beach Public Schools is one of the top school divisions in the nation because of it,” Spence said. “I feel like I’m leaving it in a great place.”
Decisions on how the division moves forward following Spence’s announcement have not been shared. The Virginia Beach School Board is set to meet Tuesday in a special meeting to discuss the superintendent’s contract.
“Loudoun County is incredibly lucky to have such a visionary, dynamic, caring and thoughtful educational leader at the helm,” VBCPS School Board Chairwoman Trenace Riggs said in a press release. “Our loss is their gain.”
Kelsey Kendall, [email protected]
