Shayla Escudero / Lincoln Chronicle **The last Lincoln County School District board meeting for Liz Martin on Tuesday night was held at the same place where she attended high school — Taft 7-12 School.**

By SHAYLA ESCUDERO/Lincoln Chronicle

Lincoln County School District’s longest serving board member is resigning after 15 years.

The five-member board, which saw three new faces in the past year, will be looking to fill the seat of Liz Martin, who oversaw two successful school bonds in her tenure and in 2023 was named Oregon’s school board member of the year. She submitted her resignation and attended her last board meeting Tuesday night.

Martin began getting involved in the school district when she was a parent to a first-grader at Sam Case School in Newport. She could see that teachers needed help in the classroom, so she coordinated with the principal to create a volunteer program, calling parents to chaperon field trips and taking shifts to help supervise students.

“We had an army people; about 110 volunteers,” Martin said in an interview with the Lincoln Chronicle.

She was encouraged to fill the vacancy on the school board and then elected and re-elected to four-year terms.

Martin, a Depoe Bay resident, is vice chair of the Depoe Bay Harbor Commission, and former chair and current advisory board member of Neighbors For Kids, an after-school day care and school there.

Shayla Escudero / Lincoln Chronicle **Liz Martin of Depoe Bay announced her resignation from the Lincoln County School Board on Tuesday night after 15 years.**

During her 15 years on the school board, she oversaw the hiring of five superintendents, including Majalise Tolan and helped spearhead the effort to win voter approval of two school bonds, including the $73 million bond in May to fund building improvements. In 2023, she was named the school board member of the year by the Oregon School Boards Association.

“I feel good about the work I’ve done, I’m proud that we decided to hire within the school district when hiring our superintendent, I’m happy to work with the people I’ve worked with and I’m proud of our fiscal responsibility,” Martin said.

Martin says she appreciates every aspect of what makes schools a place to learn – from the person who keeps the classrooms clean to the person who turns the lights on in the morning.

“Leaving is a lot harder than I thought,” Martin said.

She gave Tolan notice of her intent to resign months in advance and wanted to make sure she resigned at the start of the school year. Her decision mostly has to do with timing, Martin said, feeling like 15 years was a good amount of time to serve and wants to spend more time with family. School board membership is a big time commitment, she said.

While there were some lows in the past couple months, Martin said that didn’t necessarily drive her decision to resign, just sped it up. School officials now have to deal regularly with the influence of social media, she said, such as when supporters of a Newport private school last winter took to Facebook to pressure the district to reverse a policy that could restrict its students’ participation on public school athletic teams.

Martin said she was raised with the value of giving back to the community, and being a part of the school board was how she fulfilled that duty.

District in good hands

Shayla Escudero / Lincoln Chronicle **Lincoln County School District board chair Peter Vince of Toledo hugs Liz Martin after she announced her resignation at Tuesday night’s board meeting in Lincoln City.**

As the longest serving board member of the district, Martin holds a lot of institutional knowledge. Although the board had three new members over the past year, she isn’t worried because everyone brings something different, she said. For example, board member Jason Malloy who is Newport’s police chief, brings a street smart perspective, she said.

And with Tolan as superintendent, she feels like leadership is in good hands.

“I think I brought a sense of heartfelt commitment, I just loved every single one of the kids at our schools and I hope that whoever fills my position can bring that,” she said, “When you are really passionate about something it doesn’t feel like work.”

For Martin, Tuesday night’s board meeting was a full circle moment. The meeting location rotates between different Lincoln County schools and her last meeting took place at her old high school, Taft 7-12. As she walked through the hallway, she passed large black and white posters of graduates, and there was her picture underneath the banner “Class of 1976.”

Board members declared a vacancy for the Zone 2 seat. Applications will be accepted until Sept. 29, candidates will be interviewed and a new board member appointed Oct. 14.

Shayla Escudero covers Lincoln County government, education, Newport, housing and social services for Lincoln Chronicle and can be reached at Shayla@LincolnChronicle.org