Thanks, Loudoun County! We Needed That.
Dear Loudoun County,
Thanks so much for hiring Aaron Spence as your new superintendent of schools.
Love, Virginia Beach
Good news for those who care about returning sanity and common sense to Virginia Beach Public Schools: Superintendent Aaron Spence is leaving to head up the troubled Loudoun County Public schools.
Spence is not stupid, just incredibly woke. No doubt he realized that after last year’s school board elections he was exactly one vote away from being sacked. Why not take a high-paying job in a larger Virginia district where he’ll no doubt look terrific compared to the last guy who was fired and is under a criminal indictment.
Virginia special grand jury charges against former Loudoun County Public Schools superintendent Scott Ziegler and spokesman Wayde Byard were unsealed Monday. At least some of the indictments appear unrelated to the subject of the grand jury’s investigation: how the district handled two high-profile sexual assault cases in 2021.
Ziegler is facing misdemeanor counts of false publication, using his position to retaliate or threaten to retaliate against an employee and falsely firing the same employee, according to indictments unsealed in Loudoun County. Byard is facing a count of felony perjury.
It was the scandal in Loudoun and the spontaneous uprising of parents in one of the nation’s wealthiest counties that’s credited with propelling Glenn Youngkin to the Governor’s Mansion.
Youngkin campaigned on empowering parents in public education, while the country watched - aghast - as a viral video of the father of a girl who’d been sexually attacked in a Loudoun County school bathroom was dragged from a school board meeting for daring to express his anger.
As a result, parents’ rights has become a rallying cry across the nation as the radical agenda that quietly allowed boys to compete in girls’ sports and invade traditionally girls-only areas such as bathrooms and locker rooms has been exposed. In addition, activists discovered graphic novels in elementary and middle schools containing sexually explicit material and schools that were allowing students to secretly transition at school.
In Virginia Beach a group called StudentsFirstVa.com fielded an impressive slate of candidates to challenge the city’s far-left school board that had fought to keep schools closed and masks on children long after it was demonstrated that such measures were harming students.
The grassroots group was successful in flipping several seats. As a result, Spence is supported by a narrow 6-5 majority of the board.
So Spence, who tried to erase zeroes from school grading, (apparently to teach kids that they could get something for nothing) who abolished valedictorians and salutatorians, and who was featured in a foul-mouthed Facebook post by his wife who was cursing Donald Trump, is moving on.
‼️Introducing your new non-partisan, professional, education-focused @LCPSOfficial Superintendent Aaron Spence. He and his wife embrace and welcome everyone. Treat others with kindness, kids! pic.twitter.com/3JGAuE4jbC
— Loudoun County Republican Women's Club🇺🇸 (@LoudounGOPWomen) June 2, 2023
On Spence’s watch, which began in 2014, test scores have fallen, discipline problems have increased and staffing shortages reportedly plague the district.
When I spoke with her Saturday, School Board member Vicky Manning, a vocal opponent of Spence’s leftist agenda, did not sound dismayed by the announcement.
“It’s not a secret that he and I had our differences and I look forward to new beginnings,” she said, tactfully.
According to The Washington Post, the Loudoun board hired Spence last week and expects to pay him something in the range of $375,000 plus generous benefits. He currently earns $297,000 plus benefits at the Beach.
“My personal highest priority during this process was to find a superintendent who is experienced, accomplished and successful at running a large, complex school division, and Dr. Spence fits the bill perfectly,” Board Chair Ian Serotkin said at the meeting, according to The Washington Post.
Whatever you say, Loudoun.
