Aaron Spence Tapped as Next Schools Superintendent

BY ALEXIS GUSTIN agustin@loudounnow.com

Aaron Spence from Virginia Beach City Public Schools has been named the new Loudoun County Public Schools superintendent.

He was hired with a 6-2-1 School Board vote Friday afternoon.

Tiffany Polifko (Broad Run) and John Beatty (Catoctin) opposed the motion and Denise Corbo (At Large) was absent.

The announcement wraps up the division’s search for a new superintendent that began after the board fired former superintendent Scott Ziegler in December after a special grand jury investigation conducted into the division’s handling of a pair sexual assaults by the same student at two schools.

Spence has been the superintendent for Virginia Beach City Public Schools, a division with over 65,000 students and 10,000 employees, since 2014. Prior to that, he was the superintendent of Moore County Public Schools in North Carolina for two years and held various administrative and teaching positions.

He was named the 2018 Virginia Superintendent of the Year by the Virginia Association of School Superintendents and the Empower Digital Superintendent of the Year by the American Association of School Administrators in 2021.

“My personal highest priority during this process was to find a superintendent who was experienced, accomplished and successful at running a large, complex school division. Dr. Spence fits the bill perfectly,” Chair Ian Serotkin (Blue Ridge) said.

Spence saw growth in the division that included the implementation of full day kindergarten, and the highest graduation rate on record in Virginia Beach City Public Schools.

Atoosa Reaser (Algonkian) thanked

Loudoun County Public Schools’ newly hired superintendent Aaron Spence said he decided to make the switch to Loudoun because, after being in Virginia Beach City Public Schools for nine years, he was ready for a new challenge.

“I can’t think of a better place than Loudoun County,” he said in an interview Monday. “It’s an incredible school division. It has its challenges, but it’s the highest-performing school division in the state with incredible groups of educators, wonderful students, deeply committed families and parents. Loudoun deserves to be a nationally recognized school division.”

He said he plans to make that happen by building on the positive aspects of the division, page 32

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