Lounging on Chic’s Beach between surfing runs across the blue-green waters – for many Virginia Beach students, time spent in the sun and sand is a favorite summertime memory.

Virginia Beach’s new superintendent is no exception.

Dr. Aaron Spence, the man chosen to lead the Beach school system as the incoming superintendent, will return to his native Virginia Beach this summer, the city where he received his high school diploma and spent free time surfing with his brother as a teenager. His arrival will relieve interim superintendent Dr. Sheila Magula of the position she has held since former superintendent Dr. James Merrill left last summer to lead the school system of Wake County, N.C.

“For me, this is professionally rewarding and incredibly satisfying to know I’m going on to lead the district that did so much for me, but personally this is coming home,” Dr. Spence said.

Dr. Spence currently serves as school superintendent in North Carolina’s Moore County where he presides over 23 schools serving 13,000 students. Virginia Beach serves 68,600 students in 86 schools – just the right size, Dr. Spence said.

“It’s big enough to have wonderful resources and some interesting challenges, but not so overwhelmingly big that you can’t build strong relationships with the leadership, the people in your community, and the teachers and students,” he said.

Described as an “innovator” by his colleagues, Dr. Spence’s leadership portfolio includes numerous initiatives that have garnered accolades for the schools and districts he has worked in. As Moore County’s superintendent, Dr. Spence helped significantly boost student literacy by investing in reading intervention programs. He helped strengthen the division’s school improvement process, a refinement he said has “really changed some of the culture of our schools.”

“We can’t wait until the end of the year to see how students did,” Spence said of the process. “We have to talk about students every day to ensure that every student every day has a chance to be successful.”

In addition, Dr. Spence helped launch a three-year Digital Learning Transformation plan aimed at putting a digital device in the hands of all Moore County students. He also supported the continued development of Moore Innovation Hubs (MIH) in county high schools similar in some regards to the vocational focus and advanced curriculum of the Beach’s academy programs.

As superintendent, he supported replicating the creative atmosphere of area entrepreneurship incubators like Durham-based American Underground in Moore County schools to challenge students to embark on launch their own entrepreneurial ventures.

“I’ve tried to make some connections with things that I see as skills and opportunities that I think students should have if they’re going to be successful in the new marketplace that’s out there and get access to those in our schools,” Dr. Spence said.

Beginning his career in 1994 as a French and yearbook teacher, Dr. Spence said he was less of a “worksheet” kind of teacher and more of a “let’s get up and do things” kind of teacher. That emphasis on student engagement transferred into his focus as an administrator when appointed principal of Broad Run High School in Henrico County in 2002, he said.

“That informs what I want to see when I go into a classroom,” Dr. Spence said. “I always tell people that when I got into the principalship I didn’t quit teaching – I was just teaching adults. I felt my role was more about being clear and helping get clarity with my team about what we wanted to see when we went into a classroom, what a classroom experience should be like for students.”

From there, he became Chief Academic Officer and Director of Curriculum and Instruction for Chesterfield County Public Schools before serving a year and a half as Houston Independent School District’s Chief High School Officer, a post where he oversaw 35 high schools in the Houston area before being tapped as Moore County’s choice for superintendent in 2012.

As he went through the selection process for the spot as Beach superintendent, though, Dr. Spence said his belief that the Beach is a special place was only reaffirmed.

“There’s a really incredible team of people in Virginia Beach who work every day for the children of Virginia Beach,” Dr. Spence said. “I believed this when I was a student, and I’m seeing it confirmed in my conversations over the last few months. There’s just an exceptional group of people who are working to make sure those things are happening.”

Dr. Spence graduated from Green Run High School in 1989. He attended Thalia and Hermitage Elementary, Old Donation Center, Great Neck Junior High, and Cox High prior to enrollment at Green Run. Having experienced such a relatively wide range of schools as a student, Dr. Spence said he appreciates the diverse strengths and challenges of schools located in the Beach’s different neighborhoods.

“There are different communities with different needs and challenges, different things they are proud of and things we want to celebrate,” Dr. Spence said. “I think that’s important, to have that perspective.”

A lover of math, science, and French, Dr. Spence said he also participated in politics and numerous social causes as a high school student. While focusing on his academics, he also participated in his school’s Amnesty International club and played trumpet and baritone in the marching band. In most of his free time, though, Dr. Spence said he ended up at the beach with his brother.

“I grew up surfing at Croatan,” he said. “I grew up sitting on the beach at Chic’s Beach. I just have so many positive memories of being a kid in Virginia Beach, and I just can’t wait to have my own children be able to have those experiences.”

Dr. Spence attended the University of Virginia after high school as an engineering student. Before too long, though, he realized that path was not the best fit.

“The more I was there, the more I realized I really didn’t want to be an engineer,” he said. “I wanted to do something that I felt was more people-centric.”

Changing his major to French studies, he decided he would teach French after college. He went on to earn his master’s degree in secondary education and doctoral degree in educational administration and supervision from the University in the following years.

Dr. Spence’s advice for students who might be unsure of their career path? Don’t be passive, and don’t be afraid to change direction like he did.

“You have to really be energetic about setting goals and say, ‘This is what I think I want to do, so I’m going to pursue that until I hit a wall and decide it’s not what I want to do,” Dr. Spence said. “‘And then I’m going to set my next goal, if that’s what I want to do, and pursue that with relentless energy.’ You’re always setting your own path.”

Now that his path has brought him back to the Beach, Dr. Spence said he is looking forward to a long-awaited homecoming.

“When I first started in school administration, somebody asked me, ‘What do you want to do?’” Dr. Spence said. “I said someday my dream job would be to go back and be the superintendent of Virginia Beach City schools. Here it is not that much later – maybe 15 years later – and I am getting my dream job.”