This was no SOL pep rally.

Dr. Sandi Brown wasted no time in owning up to her deceit. After a quick cheer from the Virginia Beach Middle School cheerleading squad, Brown made her way to the podium on the brightly decorated stage and came clean.

It was all a ruse.

Though she had convened the entire seventh grade under the guise of an SOL pep rally, there was actually a completely unrelated, yet entirely exciting, reason to get together in the school auditorium.

The Virginia Lottery had selected one of their own, science teacher Maurice Cullen, as a 2016 Virginia Lottery Super Teacher Award winner. Cullen was one of eight winners in the entire state, and had been selected from a pool of roughly 800 nominations to earn this distinction.

As a reward, Cullen received a $2,000 cash prize from the Virginia Lottery as well as $2,000 to spend on classroom materials from The Supply Room Companies.

Cullen was shocked.

“There are a lot of surprises here today,” Cullen told the crowd. ““It’s a great honor. I really did not expect this at all. As a matter of fact, my wife kept saying, ‘You need to get a haircut,’ and I have an appointment…for 9:30 tomorrow.”

Cullen is the first VBCPS employee in three years to earn the honor. The last VBCPS honoree was Pembroke Elementary Kindergarten Teacher Karen Drosinos, who was surprised back in 2013.

As for the prize money, Cullen, an avid environmentalist, said he already has a plan in mind.

“I kind of have some ideas already. I’d really like to do something with a nice aquarium in the classroom with a Chesapeake Bay representation. We could that for our seventh-grade life science across the board there so every student would get that experience.”

It should come as no surprise that his plan revolves around benefitting his students.

“I’m really excited, and I just like to see the excitement with our kids,” he said. “That’s what it is all about.”