Retiring Chesapeake schools chief guided growth

CHESAPEAKE

Monday's news didn't come as a surprise, exactly.

Superintendent W. Randolph Nichols told some he was considering retirement two years ago. He was 70 - it seemed like the time had come.

But he emerged from an hourlong closed-door meeting with the School Board in 2007 with a list of goals he wanted to accomplish and plans to stay on for two more years. So there was always a chance that, this year, he'd change his mind again.

"In my mind, until Dr. Nichols said something... it wasn't official," said School Board Chairwoman Sheila Hill-Russ.

On Monday night, however, Nichols, 72, the longest-serving superintendent in South Hampton Roads, made it official - he's stepping down.

"I will leave with thousands of cherished memories, a grateful heart, and eager anticipation of the new journeys that await me," he told board members.

He thought the board needed about eight months to conduct a search for his replacement, he said Tuesday. His contract ends in June.

Hill-Russ said the board hasn't made any decisions yet on how it will conduct the search to replace Nichols, a monumental task in a city that has only had four superintendents in 60 years. The board has scheduled a public hearing for next month on what residents want to see in Nichols' replacement.

By the time his contract is up, Nichols, or "Dr. Nick," as his staff calls him, will have spent 51 years with the school division - 15 as superintendent.

He leaves a 38,500-student division with full accreditation for all of its schools but with some struggling with overcrowding - a legacy of years of massive growth.

Nichols is a native of Ahoskie, N.C., and began his career in 1959 as a teacher and track coach at Great Bridge High School. He became the system's director of research, guidance and testing in 1966, then an assistant superintendent, then deputy superintendent, before becoming head of the school division in 1995.

During its peak boom years, Chesapeake Public Schools was gaining students at the rate of more than 1,000 per year.

A quiet leader who once told a reporter his favorite type of music was "easy listening," Nichols grew exasperated with city leaders who approved developments but not any money for school construction.

"What is your plan?" he asked council members multiple times during a meeting in 2004.

Today, he again is preparing to ask the council for money, this time, for construction and for modernizing aging buildings.

"Déjà vu," he said, although he added that the situation today is not as bad as it was then.

Nichols also led the school division through a time of emphasis on standardized testing in education, Virginia's Standards of Learning and the federal No Child Left Behind Act. Chesapeake has some of the highest test scores in the region - perhaps to be expected for many of the city's schools, where the students come from families with above-average income and education levels.

However, when Nichols found the city's lower-income elementary schools lagged behind, he made boosting the scores a personal project, dropping in on classes and talking to faculty and staff. The test scores at those schools have risen, although some achievement gaps remain.

In 2003, Nichols was named Virginia superintendent of the year and was a finalist for national superintendent of the year. In 2008, the Rotary Club named him first citizen of Chesapeake.

At Tuesday night's City Council meeting, Nichols received a standing ovation from council members, who told him his mark on the city would not be forgotten.

"The majority of what we have as a school system, Dr. Nichols has built," said Malia Huddle, president of the Chesapeake Education Association.

"Big shoes to fill is a cliché, but yeah - whoever comes next, there's going to be very high expectations."

Alicia Wittmeyer, (757) 222-5216, alicia.wittmeyer@pilotonline.com