The Suffolk Public School Board has selected Dr. Deran Whitney, interim superintendent, to fill the post permanently.

“We’re excited,” Chairwoman Lorraine Skeeter said at the end of Monday’s School Board meeting. “We expect great things.”

Whitney came from a pool of 17 applicants for the position. The School Board interviewed four finalists.

Whitney started as an elementary teacher. The School Board put him in charge of the 14,000-student school division upon Milton Liverman’s retirement at the end of June.

For more information on Whitney, see Wednesday’s paper.