Suffolk schools superintendent to retire

SUFFOLK

After 10 years at the helm of the Suffolk school division, Milton Liverman announced Wednesday that he will retire this summer.

Liverman, 58, is the third South Hampton Roads superintendent to say he will step down this school year. The leaders of the Chesapeake and Norfolk school divisions also are leaving in June.

Liverman said he's thought about retiring every year for the past three. Each time, he came up with some reason to stay. This year, he said, he finally realized that the to-do list would never end.

"We are in great shape," Liverman said after announcing his resignation to the School Board. "I figured, 'What better time to leave?' "

Board chairwoman Lorraine Skeeter and Vice Chairman William Whitley said they were surprised by Liverman's announcement. They were on the board when he was chosen to be superintendent.

"I hate to see him go," Skeeter said.

"He's done an outstanding job," Whitley said. "Our school system has come a long way."

The board will meet at 4 p.m. May 13 - three hours before the regular monthly meeting - in a closed session to discuss the search for a new superintendent.

Liverman has spent 36 years with the division, which now has more than 14,000 students. Every school is fully accredited by the state, but more than half are still struggling to meet federal goals. The cohort dropout rate - which tracks a group of students - is about 13 percent, several percentage points higher than the state rate.

As president of the Virginia Association of School Superintendents, Liverman showed his ability to be a leader during state budget discussions, executive director Alfred R. Butler said. He visited Richmond at least a half-dozen times this year, met with legislators and spoke publicly about the hardships schools were facing.

Butler, an assistant superintendent in Suffolk in the 1970s, said he's seen the improvements made to the school division. "Suffolk was just kind of one of those outlying areas at one time. Now it is the place to be," Butler said. "They've improved the schools so much that people want to move there."

A native of North Carolina, Liverman began his education career there as a teacher in 1973. He joined the Suffolk school system a year later as a math teacher at the former John F. Kennedy High School.

Liverman became a middle school assistant principal in 1981, he advanced to test analyst, supervisor of research and computer technology, coordinator of pupil personnel and then assistant superintendent over the years. He reached the top post in 2000.

Liverman took the reins as Suffolk was growing quickly. Four schools - Creekside and Hillpoint elementary, King's Fork Middle and King's Fork High - opened during his tenure.

He listed the capital program - including the new construction and the updating of facilities - among the division's successes in the last 10 years. Critics, however, have pointed to the new buildings as examples of excessive spending.

Liverman said he's disappointed that the division has not yet completed plans for a new elementary school in the southern portion of the city.

Ethel Williams, president of the Education Association of Suffolk, said she will miss working with Liverman.

"I found him to be a friend to teachers, as he understood our concerns and was willing to work with us..." Williams wrote in an e-mail Wednesday. "I am sad to see him go but not stunned. I do hope that the person that replaces him is as open and flexible... when working with the association."

For now, his plan is to stay in Suffolk and pay more attention to his ministry duties. Liverman is an associate minister at East End Baptist Church. He also hopes to travel with his wife, Shirley, an educational diagnostician in the division's special education department. She is also retiring this year.

Hattie Brown Garrow, (757) 222-5562, hattie.brown@pilotonline.com