Thanks, Loudoun County! We Needed That.

by Kerry Dougherty 

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?

The Washington Post reported in December that not only had Scott Ziegler been canned by the Loudoun County School Board, but a grand jury indicted him on criminal charges.

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.

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.

Republished with permission from Kerry: Unemployed and Uncensored.


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Comments

14 responses to “Thanks, Loudoun County! We Needed That.”

  1. James Wyatt Whitehead Avatar
    James Wyatt Whitehead

    It looks like Spence is a perfect fit for Loudoun. If voters usher in a new school board in November it will be interesting to see how the marriage holds up.

  2. Lefty665 Avatar
    Lefty665

    Looks like Loudoun has not had enough fun yet. Be interesting to see if the honeymoon lasts more than the half year to elections.

  3. Teddy007 Avatar
    Teddy007

    If one is interested in school board and superintendents, why no reporting on Stafford County and their new, inexperienced heads of public schools?

    1. Lefty665 Avatar
      Lefty665

      Is Stafford in a race to the bottom with Fredericksburg?

      1. Teddy007 Avatar
        Teddy007

        That would be the point of reporting. If one can raise test scores, lower violence, and improve student satisfaction when an inexperienced, social conservative superintendent. One would think that all of the social conservatives would jump on the band wagon of a successful conservative superintendent instead of focusing on the issues of Loudoun County when the real issue in Loudoun County is the school system wanting to end tracking and AP classes.

  4. Virginia Gentleman Avatar
    Virginia Gentleman

    It is awesome that Loudoun hired someone who is woke. It would be terrible for someone in this role to be not interested in learning and growing as a person (read: un-woke).

    1. James C. Sherlock Avatar
      James C. Sherlock

      Conservatives “not interested in learning and growing as person(s)”.

      Thank you. It means a lot.

      1. Stephen Haner Avatar
        Stephen Haner

        He is filling in nicely for the absent Larry, isn’t he?

      2. Virginia Gentleman Avatar
        Virginia Gentleman

        You are right … I corrected.

  5. VaNavVet Avatar
    VaNavVet

    From what I have read about the Virginia Beach Public Schools and from its ranking in Sherlock’s many data sets, this seems like a big minus for Virginia Beach and large plus for Loudoun County. For Kerry anything a tick left of ultra-conservative is woke. Now that Trump has publicly acknowledged that the term “woke” is meaningless perhaps there is hope for DeSantis and Kerry. I wouldn’t hold my breath waiting on either of them though.

    1. Kurt Eberly Avatar
      Kurt Eberly

      It is not a big minus for Virginia Beach. Are you familiar with the tenure of Dr. Spence as superintendent here?

      1. VaNavVet Avatar
        VaNavVet

        Yes academically VBPS has long been the top performing district in the area.

        1. Kurt Eberly Avatar
          Kurt Eberly

          This is not due to Aaron Spence. Residents here are not unhappy that he is leaving.

          1. VaNavVet Avatar
            VaNavVet

            Difficult to speak for all of the residents.

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