Ben Sproul Leads Dare Education Foundation
It’s been smiles all around in the early going for Ben Sproul.
By Steve Hanf / Photo above: Kitty Hawk Elementary School Media Center Coordinator Ellen Bryson (right) shows off a donation check for a project to celebrate the 250th birthday of America. New Dare Education Foundation Executive Director Ben Sproul said visiting schools to hand out money to support local students is a major highlight of the job.
There’s the new Executive Director of the Dare Education Foundation with the librarian at Kitty Hawk Elementary School, in the chorus room at First Flight Middle, in the computer lab at First Flight High, side by side with smiling students and elated educators, giant donation check proudly displayed.
“Timing wise, it couldn’t be a better time to roll into the role—give away the money,” Sproul says. “It reminds you of the fun part.”
DEF has been a fixture in the community for three decades and will celebrate its 25th anniversary in 2027. Its mission, quite simply, is to “enrich innovative learning projects in Dare County Schools.”
In its annual report for 2024-25, DEF highlighted more than $45,000 awarded in classroom grants, $30,000 in scholarships passed along to graduating seniors, and more than $26,000 in reimbursements for teachers pursuing professional development. The award funds primarily come from individual and business donations, special fundraiser events and grants.
In that regard, it’s hard to know how folks on the Outer Banks know DEF best: Is it for the check presentations to help classrooms? The scholarship awards ceremonies? The 32 teacher housing units?
Ben Sproul takes the stage to greet teachers during a professional development day for Dare County Schools in February. The event at First Flight High School was one of Sproul’s first in his new role of Executive Director of the Dare Education Foundation.
In much the same way, it’s hard to know how folks best know the new executive director, who began his new gig on Feb. 2.
“In certain circles, I’m still ‘the mayor,’ but in other circles people know me from being on the school board, in other circles being a surfer, in other circles for live music,” Sproul says with a smile. “I have a bunch of disparate friend groups that sometimes overlap – lots of weird Venn diagrams in my life.”
Sproul has called the beach home for 35 years, coming down from James Madison University for summer jobs and eventually starting a beloved business in Kill Devil Hills in 1994: The Pit Surf Shop & Boardriders Grill. That’s where the surfing and live music connections come into play.
In the midst of The Pit’s 20-year run, Sproul got a call from longtime educator and Board of Education member Skip Saunders about running for his opening on the BOE.
Reflecting on his own educational journey, “I realized that it was the perfect fit,” Sproul says. He refers to his mother as his “constant teacher” with her double-major in English and Religion. Meanwhile, growing up in an Army family and moving to new schools from state to state and even overseas gave him insights into a lot of big-picture education topics. His own children also were making their mark with Dare County Schools.
So from 2008 to 2019, there was Sproul at every Board of Education meeting – including the last five years being voted to the role of chairman.
“When I started on the Board, I was the youngest one there. And then Dave Oaksmith, five or six years in, said ‘I’ve talked to all the Board members – you should be the next chair,’ ” Sproul recalls. “I was like, ‘How is this happening to me?’ So I think other people saw it in me before I saw it in myself, but then being chair, I really kind of hit my stride.”
Sproul’s attention to detail and ability to develop relationships and handle conflicts didn’t go unnoticed. Just as Saunders approached him about joining the BOE, Sheila Davies also called Sproul when she was getting ready to step down as the mayor of Kill Devil Hills.
Eager for a new challenge, Sproul won the mayor’s race and served KDH from 2019 to 2023: “I had big plans, but then Covid happened, so I just became a Covid mayor,” he says of that stint.
When John Windley topped Sproul in the 2023 campaign, it wasn’t until January or February of 2024 that Sproul finally pinpointed what was so different about his new life: “‘What is it that feels weird? I can’t place it.’ And then I realized that my phone is not ringing anymore, for the first time in my whole life,” he says with a laugh. “Suddenly, I was like, ‘Oh, I’m a civilian, and no one’s calling me.’”
Sproul spent the next few years working for a local company before finding his position cut in what would turn out to be what he called a serendipitous “one door closing, one door opening” moment. The open door was the opening at DEF, and it turned out that what Sproul had to offer and what the DEF Board was looking for proved to be a perfect match.
Below: Ben Sproul joins Dare Education Foundation board members at First Flight High School to meet with local teachers as they arrive for a work day. The long-time local is well known from his time as a business owner, school board member and mayor of Kill Devil Hills, and now serves as Executive Director of DEF.
“It’s right in the intersection of everything that I love and care about and do,” Sproul says. “ A lot of people, they find their thing and they sort of obsess about it. But my personality, I have always kind of looked at a lot of things. Certain roles need a jack-of-all-trades, and they get that in me.”
There’s the marketing background and a familiarity with outreach and graphic design. There’s the business background and knowledge of entrepreneurship and spreadsheets. There’s the people side, or as Sproul puts it: “As they said in the last century, ‘I have a Rolodex.’ I know some people after all these years.”
With the goal of helping boost education in Dare County, fundraising to help pay for projects is obviously a key component of the job. But so is marketing and promoting all the good that so many people and businesses help make happen.
“When kids are involved, you just can do no wrong to carefully steward the generosity that the community has,” Sproul explains. “I think people want to be associated with doing good with their philanthropy, and that doesn’t come from me going, ‘Hey, can you write me a check?’ It comes from, ‘Look at all this cool stuff we’ve done for teachers—don’t you want to be a part of that?’ ”
Sproul also has experience on the real estate side of things, and the affordable housing debate shows no sign of letting up any time soon. DEF has 24 teacher apartments in Kill Devil Hills and 12 in Buxton, with expansion talks going on for the last few years. Sproul calls housing a big opportunity as well as being exciting and groundbreaking – only a handful of other districts in the state have anything like it – and among the biggest challenges he and the DEF Board members face.
As for that Board, Sproul adds that he’s enjoying getting to know each member and soon will be looking for new folks in the community to join the DEF ranks as current members rotate off. Perhaps you, too, may find yourself holding a giant check in one hand with smiling students and teachers on each side as you help make dreams come true one grant at a time.
“It didn’t really dawn on me until three weeks in (to the new job), but I loved being mayor. I loved being Chairman of the School Board,” Sproul says. “But there were never enough hours in the day. In each case I had a full-time job, so I’m trying to do this nights and weekends and lunches. This is the first time I get to do education from the time I wake up, every day, and not have to split it with anything else, so this is really kind of a dream job.”
Steve Hanf is the journalism teacher at First Flight High School. He has received DEF grants for National Board Certification, and his students take photos of FFHS events with cameras purchased with funds from past DEF awards.
Author: Steve Hanf
Steve Hanf is a former professional sportswriter who has taught the journalism classes at First Flight High School since 2015.
