Jim Shaeffer, the Eastern Shore Community College president who led the Melfa school through a state-mandated, three-year improvement process to improve its sustainability, announced Monday, Aug. 5, that he will retire at the end of June 2025.
“This was a very difficult decision to make, but Peggy and I feel now is the time for us to spend more time together and with our family and 11 grandchildren,” said Shaeffer, referring to his wife, in a prepared release from the college.
“It has been my utmost pleasure and honor to have served as your president, and I look forward to rolling up our collective sleeves over the upcoming months to continue taking ESCC from a very good college to a great college,” he said.
Shaeffer is the fifth president of the school, which became a community college in 1971. He was named president in 2019.
Details and timelines on the search process for President Shaeffer’s replacement will be shared in the months ahead, the prepared release stated.
The office of David Doré, chancellor of the Virginia Community College System, will coordinate with the Melfa college to search for Shaeffer’s successor “and to ensure a smooth transition,” according to a prepared release.
Shaeffer oversaw the establishment of “a new culture of ‘YES! Your Eastern Shore,’” which includes in its mission “hospitality, transparency, accountability, and inclusion,” and an “ownership of the college mission, vision and values,” the release stated.
Shaffer said enrollments in transfer and workforce programs “are as high as they have been in years” and policies and procedures have been created to assure student success.
“The programs we now have in place such as Contact to Career, Achieving the Dream, and a recent $900,000 grant from the Ratcliffe Foundation position ESCC extremely well into the next 50 years,” he said.
Shaeffer’s tenure began under a 3-year reboot plan imposed by the state board of community colleges, designed to assure the college could be a “strong, sustainable college that would more effectively and efficiently serve the educational and training needs of the Eastern Shore of Virginia.”
In September 2022, the reboot status was lifted after proving measurable gains in workforce and academic enrollments, in addition to changing its business model and stabilizing finances.
“I am grateful for his many contributions to the Shore and the VCCS both in services as college president and on the council of presidents,” said Doré.
“I look forward to Jim’s ongoing leadership of ESCC throughout the 2024-2025 academic year, and I ask you to join me in thanking him for his leadership and congratulating him on his upcoming retirement.”
