The Loudoun County School Board has appointed Dr. Daniel Smith as their interim superintendent, the decision coming on the heels of their unanimous vote to fire superintendent Scott Ziegler on Tuesday night. 

Smith will have quite the undertaking in his role. Loudoun County Schools are still trying to catch students up after a post-pandemic drop in test scores. They are also navigating teacher shortages, and trying to address the gaps in learning and discipline for students in poverty, especially Black and Latinx students, and others. 

This is in addition to the school board and Ziegler being scrutinized after a grand jury report that was released on Monday detailing the school system’s mishandling of two sexual assaults at two different schools by the same student. The report cited Zieger as having lied to the public at a June 2021 school board meeting where he said that no sexual assaults occurred in LCPS bathrooms – this was weeks after LCPS administrators responded to the first assault.

“During his brief tenure with LCPS, Dr. Smith has earned the School Board’s trust in what has been a very difficult time for the school division,” School Board Chair Jeff Morse (Dulles District) said in a press release. “His familiarity with the school division will ease a time of transition.”

Smith started as a middle and high school teacher in Alaska. He was a principal at Virginia Beach City Public Schools and Page County Public Schools and most recently served as principal for Lake Braddock Secondary School for 16 years. He was appointed Chief of Staff in April 2022, according to the release.

“It is my goal to create a climate that, in the short term, rebuilds public trust and, in the long term, allows the next superintendent to devote their efforts to the most important work schools perform: educating students in a safe environment that allows them to reach their full potential,” Smith said.

The School Board plans to begin the search for a new superintendent soon and hopes to find the right candidate by spring 2023, according to the release.