by Kerry Dougherty
We tried to warn you, Loudoun County.
We told you that Virginia Beach School Superintendent Aaron Spence was trouble. That he was one vote away from being sacked by the newly elected Beach school board when he decided to bolt for greener pastures. That he was a devoted wokester.
Spence was pressured to apologize. And he did, twice.
The Fun Couple is your problem now, Loudoun.
Shoot, the new school year was barely underway before news broke that Spence failed to inform parents – FOR 20 DAYS – that kids were overdosing on fentanyl in one Loudoun high school. He dodged pesky reporters and television cameras with the nerve to ask why he delayed.
In short, Spence is a public relations nightmare.
So it should come as no surprise that the superintendent’s brought one of his old mouthpieces up from Virginia Beach to run interference for him.
Natalie Allen is the new Chief Communications Officer for Loudoun County Public Schools.
But her quarter of a million salary has outraged the public, giving Spence yet another fire to extinguish. Nick Minock, an Emmy Award-winning reporter for ABC affiliate WJLA TV, is asking all the right questions about the controversial hire:
Loudoun County Public Schools is paying chief communications officer Natalie Allen a salary of $251k and she has around 12 years of communications experience. That’s more (money) than what taxpayers are paying Communications Supervisor Wayde Byard ($176k) who has been with LCPS for 20+ years. Taxpayers are also paying Allen more money than the Governor of Virginia, the White House Press Secretary, the Sheriff and the Commonwealth’s Attorney. Story: wjla.com/news/local/lou
According to Minock, not only does Allen have only a dozen years of experience, but she’s hauling in way more loot than others in the department who have been with the school division for 20 years or more. Oh, and it appears that some members of the school board were unaware of her juicy compensation package. And Minock is waiting for answers about whether Allen’s job was advertised and how many others applied for it.
Nice to see reporters committing actual acts of journalism. It doesn’t happen enough these days.
I texted last night with Virginia Beach School Board member Vicky Manning to see what she thought of Allen.
Manning told me that she voted against hiring Allen in 2018 because her salary was “way too high…she also did not have much executive experience at the time.”
And get this:
“She was also hired without the position being publicized.”
Sigh.
By the way, in her new Loudoun job Allen is making more than the governor. Last time I checked, Glenn Youngkin’s salary was $175,000.
Then again, Natalie Allen has a much harder job:
Trying to make Aaron Spence look good.
Republished with permission from Kerry: Unemployed and Unedited.
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