LCPS Superintendent holds listening session at Tuscarora High School

By Audrey Carpenter

As part of his commitment to increased engagement and transparency, Loudoun County Public School Superintendent Dr. Aaron Spence hosted a Community Listening Session at Tuscarora High School in Leesburg Oct. 26.

Dr. Spence began as the new superintendent Sept. 1 after former Superintendent Scott Ziegler was fired in December 2022 by a unanimous school board vote a day after a special grand jury report criticized the school system’s handling of two sexual assaults by the same student in 2021, which drew national attention and scrutiny from Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares.

Last month, a jury found Ziegler guilty of retaliation against a special education teacher at Rosa Lee Carter Elementary School in Ashburn when he did not renew her contract after she reported repeated inappropriate sexual touching from an autistic student in her classroom. According to case documents, both the teacher and her aide were touched inappropriately up to 40 times a day. 

The teacher has filed a $1 million civil suit against Zeigler for wrongful termination.

Zeigler is set to be sentenced Jan. 4, 2024 for the unlawful termination conviction by Loudoun County Circuit Court Judge Douglas Fleming Jr., and faces up to a year in prison on the misdemeanor. 

According to court records, Ziegler is scheduled to begin another trial on Feb. 20 on one count of making a false statement for claiming during a televised school board meeting that he was unaware of any reports of sexual assaults at Loudoun County Schools.

A $30 million civil rights lawsuit was filed in U.S. District Court in Alexandria against LCPS in early October 2023 by the first victim of the sexual assault on school grounds in 2021, alleging that school officials did not heed warning signs about her attacker, attempted to cover up the sexual assault, and did not follow Title IX protocol.

Rebuilding trust

Due to all the controversy surrounding Zeigler and the school board, several parents expressed at school board meetings throughout 2021-2022 that they had lost trust in the school system regarding the safety of their children and proper handling of complaints from teachers and parents.

In order to help repair that trust, Dr. Spence began hosting listening sessions in September that will continue until April 2024, holding these meetings at each of the county’s 18 high schools. Dr. Spence is the former Superintendent of the Virginia Beach City Public School system and was named the 2018 Virginia Superintendent of the Year by the Virginia Association of School Superintendents.

At the meeting Oct. 26, the attendees were asked to participate in small group discussions which focused on three areas: What are your hopes and dreams for students? What is LCPS doing well? Where does LCPS need to improve?

Erika Ogedegbe, the school board member representing the Leesburg District, attended the meeting and said, “I sat in on the interview process to hire Dr. Spence and one of the things we asked him was what his approach would be to getting into schools to be visible and connect with students, staff and parents.” She said Dr. Spence’s response was that “any leader must do this as part of an entry plan” into the school system. 

“He’s making good on his promise,” she said.

Ogedegbe stated the listening sessions give the public the opportunity to be heard to a greater extent than regular school board meetings because school board meetings limit speakers to a few minutes while listening sessions give more time for attendees for dialogue and present their suggestions to the superintendent directly.

The school board consists of nine members and all nine seats are up for vote in the upcoming November election. Lauren Shernoff is running for the Leesburg seat against Ogedegbe and also attended the meeting. She said, “In the past, school leadership has not authentically engaged the students, educators and families to know what is needed and how people will be impacted by their policy decisions,” and was pleased to see the superintendent holding the listening sessions. 

An advocate for school parents’ rights, Shernoff has been a public educator for 16 years and currently works as an English and Language Arts facilitator at Guilford Elementary.

Parent feedback

Becki Dannenberg, a Leesburg resident whose children attend Tuscarora High School, stated, “LCPS does a good job of safety in the schools, communication district-wide and having committed staff who care about the students.” Improvements her small group suggested were enhancing the cell phone policy, consistently applying policies across all schools, unified communication tools and bringing back school ranking to recognize high achieving students. 

Lori Levine, a Leesburg resident with a child in middle school, added, “High expectations should be set for both academic achievement and also discipline, making sure that students are respectful to teachers and staff.”

Other comments from attendees included helping to inform parents whose children are entering kindergarten on what the school policies and procedures are to make the entrance into the school system easier, along with making sure parents and students are aware of what resources are available within the school if a child needs help. 

After all the listening sessions are concluded, Dr. Spence explained a research and evaluation team will do a qualitative and quantitative analysis of the information collected and then that information will be forwarded to the superintendent’s cabinet. Smaller focus groups will then meet to further discuss conclusions from the listening sessions. The top priorities will be shared with the school board with associated funding requests.

For priorities identified that don’t need funding, such as policy changes for student conduct or grading, Levine asked Dr. Spence whether those are actionable in the short term.

“Yes, it is actionable,” Dr. Spence said, but made it clear that it could be several months before changes are implemented. 

Office of the Ombuds

LCPS established the Office of the Ombuds in September 2022 which provides students, families, employees and members of the school community with assistance to help resolve concerns, conflicts and issues arising within the school system. 

Carey Williams is the Ombuds and her role is impartial, independent and informal, keeping information received confidential. 

Ombuds cards were available at the listening meeting and distributed to attendees. Dr. Spence made a point to let attendees know that while it may take some time to synthesize all the information collected from the listening sessions, if there is a current need or concern, parents, students and staff can use the Ombuds to facilitate problem solving. Williams reports to the Chief of Staff for LCPS.

A list of future listening sessions can be found here: https://www.lcps.org/Page/250740.

If you are unable to attend a listening session but would like to offer feedback, you can do so here: https://www.lcps.org/Page/251934.

Photo by Audrey Carpenter