Principal of Spring Valley Academy in Centerville

For Spencer Hannah, joining Spring Valley Academy, a Seventh-day Adventist K-12 school in Centerville, as principal in 2023 was a homecoming of sorts. He grew up in the small town of Cygnet, Ohio, (just south of Bowling Green) and first fell in love with education there. He’s spent 43 years in education, teaching (and later administrating) at Seventh-day Adventist schools in Colorado, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Florida, Washington and Nebraska. We sat down with Hannah to learn more about him, Spring Valley Academy and his goals for the future.

Dayton Magazine: What led you to education as a career?

Spencer Hannah: I chose to go into education because the influence that teachers had on my life. It was primarily those teachers in that local public school in Cygnet that during some tough times in our family demonstrated the impact that teachers can have on their kids of encouraging, supporting and listening. And I just thought, “This is pretty cool. I cherish what they’ve done for me. I want to do that as well.” It was just a desire to impact lives, to touch lives and in a manner similar that had been done to me.

DM: What drew you to Seventh-Day Adventist education?

SH: Seventh-day Adventist education, that has been my commitment, that has been my passion. Sharing my values, my faith, my knowledge and understanding of who God is and how he wants to be a part of my life has been important for me to be able to make that part of my career. Not just my religion but part of my career. I have had that passion to have those intense conversations with kids where we’re talking about who you’re going to be, what are you going to espouse as your values, not your parents’ values, not your school’s values, but what are you gonna take on as your values? And who are you going to be as you form your character growing up through these years? I’ve cherished having those opportunities to have those conversations with kids.

DM: How did you end up moving to Dayton and Spring Valley Academy?

SH: The journey has been circuitous. I’ve been a lot of places and the opportunities have presented themselves to go and teach or go and be an administrator. I started my teaching career in 1981, got my master’s in 1991, started working in administration. Most of my career for the last 30-plus years has been in administration, either as a principal or a vice principal. Different opportunities have presented themselves to go to different places and do that. When the opportunities arise, I just ask myself, “Would this be a positive move for me in my journey with God? Is this where he wants me to go and work? Is this a good move for my family?”

And just try to follow that prompting and it’s finally led me back to Ohio. I grew up in Ohio, but never worked here until this year when God said, “OK, we’re taking you back to Ohio.”

I was leaving a position in Nebraska and planning to retire after 42 years. [Spring Valley Academy] said, “Would you come for a year?” The idea of coming back home to Ohio, closer to family and friends, was inviting and tempting. And so we bit at that temptation and came here and now have decided to stay on at least one more year.

DM: What have you enjoyed most about Spring Valley Academy?

SH: Spring Valley Academy is a special place because of several things. I would say, No. 1, the community support between the churches, the parents—those that believe in Spring Valley Academy—are extremely passionate about that belief. And they engage their time, their resources and their support to make Spring Valley a success.

We have an incredible music program for high school music: band choir, strings, stage band, brass and quintet.

I love that we have a very good sports program that kids get involved in volleyball, soccer and basketball and I like having those opportunities for our kids all the way down to middle school and high school.

We have top-notch academics. We have dual credit opportunities. Our students can get over 20 college credits by taking classes here on our campus that will apply towards college because of our partnership with Kettering College. They take a class from our teachers here and Kettering gives them college credit that they can then transfer anywhere they want to go. That’s a great opportunity for them to accelerate that process and get some of those college classes under their belt with teachers that they’re familiar with and within their high school schedule.

And then of course for me, being a faith-based school. The spiritual aspect, the putting the things we say we’ll believe into action, mission opportunities. We have outreach opportunities. We have a mission trip going to Tennessee this summer with students to go down and help some families in need there. We have a mission trip. We’ll be headed for Kenya, Africa, next spring over our spring break. I love seeing students get involved and thinking outside of themselves.

The other thing that I would say that I like about Spring Valley Academy is the diversity of the population. We have, black, African, we have Hispanic, we have white, we have Asian. I think that’s better representative of our community, our world, at large.

DM: Are there things that you’re hoping to accomplish while you’re there in this role?

SH: We’re going to be working to grow the culture of the school and to build the academic program even further. It’s a great one, but I think there’s some things we can do there to shore it up in places.

The other one is the strategic planning. We had a record enrollment [of 526] this year, and we’re gonna exceed that by 30 or 40 next year. And, if we keep growing like that, we’re gonna run into some real problems here very soon. And so, to strategically plan, how are we going to handle that type of growth? What do we need to do? And so to be working with our board and community on establishing a strategic plan, looking out five, 10 years, that’s another thing that I really want to get geared up and work on. They’ve done some work on it. We need to continue to build on that and establish what that plan is moving forward.