The Loudoun County School Board will hold a meeting Thursday to appoint an interim superintendent after firing leader Scott Ziegler over a report blasting the school district's handling of two sexual assaults by the same student.
The school board will convene an emergency meeting to vote on a motion designating Dr. Daniel Smith as the acting leader of Loudoun County Public Schools.
Smith is the current chief of staff at LCPS. He has 16 years of experience as a principal; he formerly led Lake Braddock Secondary School. He graduated from James Madison University and got his doctorate at the University of Virginia, according to his official bio.
Smith would replace former superintendent Ziegler, who was fired Tuesday — a day after a special grand jury released a scathing report saying leaders “failed at every juncture” in responding to on-campus assaults.
A student sexually assaulted a female student at Stone Bridge High School in May 2021, but was allowed to transfer to Broad Run High School, where he abducted and sexually assaulted another female student in October of 2021. The teen was later convicted in juvenile court.
The grand jury said the school “bears the brunt of the blame” for the second assault and school system administrators looked out for their own interests rather than the best interests of the school district throughout their handling of the cases.
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