Martinson reflects on his time on NL School Board

NEW LONDON – After serving on the New London Board of Education for almost 10 years, Chris Martinson decided not to run for reelection for another term in the April 7, spring election.
Even though Martinson said he is still passionate about the New London school system, he decided not to run for reelection because he is 74 years old and he is “slowing down.”
“I never envisioned being on it (school board) this long to begin with but I don’t regret it,” Martinson said. “It is time for younger people to step in.”
Martinson said he initially ran for a seat on the school board in 2015 because of two reasons. The first was fiscal conservative issues.
“There was a referendum that I opposed, not because I didn’t think we needed to have a referendum, but because of the idea they didn’t look at the budget first and say, ‘What can we carve out of that? How can we keep this best for the taxpayer?’ Martinson said. “So, I was involved in a campaign to oppose that.”

That referendum for funds for roofs on New London schools did pass, and Martinson said in hindsight “good things” came from that referendum.
The second issue was Common Core. He said he wasn’t against Common Core, but he was against the national standardization of Common Core.
“We also found out in Wisconsin that it’s your local district that determines standards and curriculum, and not the state,” Martinson said.
While Martinson said he believes someone who is running for a seat on a school board should have ties to the community, he said he was told prior to his first run for school board that, “You can’t get elected unless you come from the area or been here a long time and have a lot of roots and relatives. You can’t get elected if you’re not well liked by the administration. You can’t get elected if you’re not a volunteer within the school system.”
Martinson said it was odd to feel like he was called to run for a seat on the school board because he had never thought of running before. Is attempt to win a seat on the school board failed in 2015, as he fell 125 votes short of getting elected.
In 2016, Martinson once again ran for a seat on the school board. That year he received the most votes of the three candidates running for two seats on the school board.
“I almost didn’t run that year,” Martinson said. “I thought I was done when I got beat, but a lot of people talked me into it.”
He said besides fiscal conservative issues and Common Core, preserving Christian values in education also drove him to run for a seat on the school board.
“We’re not religious schools that teach religion, and I don’t believe we should violate any Supreme Court orders about prayer in schools, but American schools were founded by Christians,” Martinson said.
When Martinson was first elected to the school board, his conservative viewpoint was in the minority.
“Something you can do as an individual member and when you’re outvoted on a policy, you can help people get through the system and get their case heard,” Martinson said.
Martinson said he tried to help everyone, regardless if they had the same viewpoint as him.
“People would call me because they believed I would listen,” Martinson said. “And I would try to be that person that would always listen. Even people that didn’t vote for me.”
Martinson lost his reelection bid to the school board in 2019 by 17 votes, but was reelected to the school board in 2020.
Then COVID hit, and in 2022, Martinson was elected president of the New London Board of Education. He said COVID was the reason he was elected president.
“I never had a vision of ever becoming president of the board,” Martinson said. “I had a vision of trying to be a voice for things I believed in. But you get thrust into situations.”
When asked if COVID was the reason district residents began voting for more conservative candidates for school board, Martinson replied, “Absolutely. No question.”
One of the things that Martinson said he is proud of about his time on the board is the pay for teachers. He said at the end of the last school year, the New London School District was first out of eight area school districts in teacher pay.
“I’m kind of proud of that. I’m a fiscal conservative and we did it without a referendum,” Martinson said. “We had to cut other things to do it. Our board is not afraid to spend money where its needed, but we are solid fiscally conservative as a board. I’m not saying we’ll never need a referendum, but if they do, I believe they will go about it the right way. You don’t want to say no to something that is absolutely necessary for education. We’re conservative, but for education.”
Martinson said one of the hardest things that the school board did while he was president was forming an ad hoc committee to address dropping English and math scores.
“We were told, generally speaking, leave it up to the staff, they’ll figure it out,” Martinson said. “I had people in the community who came to me to form a committee, put people who are interested in education and have ideas on this on the committee. And put a couple of school board members on it that are interested in this and put administrators and teachers, and especially some principals on it. I championed this idea. I brought it to the board. It was hotly debated.”
The committee was approved, but Martinson said, “The thing almost blew up in the beginning.”
But in the end, “We listened to the teachers. We listened to the principals. And those people listened to the community members that we put on there. We came out with two ideas that were unanimous. We weren’t unanimous coming in.
“A lot of the successes are not what you win by imposing your will and getting (your way), it’s when you can reach across, develop relationships where you learn something from them and they learn something from you. And it improves the district.”
Martinson said the New London Board of Education is in a better position after his time as president of the board.
“But not because of solely me,” he said. “This is a team sport. You can’t do anything on your own, except be a voice. It’s because of the people of this district are very pro education. They want good schools, but they also want them to be responsive to the community.”