THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, February 11, 1995 TAG: 9502110097
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B4 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY VANEE VINES, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: SUFFOLK LENGTH: Medium: 79 lines
Schools Superintendent Beverly B. Cox III will retire at the end of the school year.
In a closed-door session during Thursday's School Board meeting, he told the board that health concerns were behind his decision. Cox, who underwent double-bypass heart surgery in December 1992, declined to offer details Friday.
His last day as chief of the 9,400-student school district will be June 30. The board scheduled a special meeting for 10 a.m. Monday to discuss the search for a replacement.
``I have very mixed emotions because I love my work and I love the school system,'' Cox said Friday. ``It's hard . . . but I know I need the rest.''
The Rev. Mark Croston, the board's vice chairman, said he respected Cox's decision, although the news came as a shock.
``I was quite surprised,'' Croston said Friday, ``but the decision seems very reasonable.''
In a prepared statement, board chairman Arthur D. Smith said the superintendent would be missed, but ``his health must come first.''
Cox, 53, spent 10 years as a teacher, assistant principal and principal in Danville before Suffolk hired him in 1978.
He worked his way up the central office ladder - from intermediate and secondary education coordinator to assistant superintendent for instruction and personnel to acting superintendent. The School Board gave him the top post in December 1991 after a financial scandal and the resignation of former superintendent C. Lindsey Suggs.
The board chose him, in part, for his effort to move the system forward. Cox, for example, had Suggs' budget re-examined line by line for errors. He then helped to craft a revised budget for the 1991-92 year.
During his tenure, Cox sought to beef up school technology and security, provide teachers and other staff members with more training and increase investments in capital improvements. He also pressed principals and teachers to come up with annual plans to get more students off the bottom rung in achievement on standardized tests.
Last school year, he began a series of ``open-door nights'' - a time when citizens can stop by his office after hours to discuss concerns.
``He's open with parents,'' said Marcie Mitchell, a member of the district's Parent Advisory Council. ``. . . Like I tell my husband, I can go down the street and he'll pass me and honk. That tells me that I mean something.''
Cox is a stickler for planning.
The district, for example, intends to start ``block scheduling'' at both high schools next school year. The goal is to provide time for more creative projects - like chemistry experiments - that are difficult to cram into the traditional class period of about 46 minutes.
Public schools across the country increasingly have turned to block scheduling - which doubles the consecutive time spent in some classes - as a way to stretch classes' potential. The Cox administration has studied the idea for at least two years, providing staff members and teachers with training opportunities along the way.
The Rev. Felton Whitfield, president of the Suffolk Ministers Association and the Suffolk Interdenominational Ministerial Alliance, has worked with Cox to strengthen the school system's ties to the community.
``He might not always bring something to the table that knocks you over, but it will definitely have a solid basis and be thought out,'' Whitfield said Friday. ``He seems to really want to make Suffolk's schools better.''
Cox's announcement was the second this year involving the departure of a high-ranking school official. Board member and former Superintendent Mack Benn Jr. recently said he would give up his seat in March. Benn said he could no longer give the job his all.
Cox is the second South Hampton Roads superintendent this school year to announce his retirement. In October, Chesapeake Superintendent C. Fred Bateman told that city's School Board he would retire in July. ILLUSTRATION: Photo
SuffolK Schools Superintendent Beverly B. Cox III
KEYWORDS: SUFFOLK SCHOOL BOARD by CNB