After serving the Liberty County School System and its students and staff for 47 years, Liberty County School Board Chairwoman Lily Baker said she is stepping away and will not seek re-election this year. She will continue to serve until her current board term expires and a new board chair is elected and sworn in.

Baker made the decision to inform LCSS Superintendent Dr. Franklin Perry and the other board members this past Friday morning.

Baker was an educator for 31 years and served as the board chair for the past 16 years, consistently being re-elected since her first term started in 2006.

“I have thoroughly enjoyed it,” she said. “I appreciate the voters having confidence in me to do the job. I am so grateful, and I am going out when I’m feeling well and doing well.”

“It is my pleasure to work with Mrs. Lily Baker,” said Dr. Perry. “Chair Baker’s 47-year dedication and commitment to the students and the Liberty County community are remarkable. Mrs. Baker has always worked to put students first, and the accomplishments made by our Board of Education and the Liberty County School System speak clearly to her outstanding leadership. Mrs. Baker is a great example of Excellence in Everything.”

When asked what her plans for retirement are, she said she plans on doing nothing but enjoying her grandkids.

“But I’m sure I’ll get involved in something,” she said, noting that as board chair, she has served on several other local committees. She said she may volunteer with one of those organizations but also plans to go fishing and ride her bicycle, which she enjoys.

Baker said that when she was first elected, she asked a lot of questions and reached out to other experts in the field.

She said she had a great mentor in Franklin Pinckney from Waycross, who served on the Georgia School Board Association. She said Harley Grove, who was an interim superintendent, was also very patient with her in her earlier years as chair. She called both men her greatest mentors.

“They helped me to get where I am today,” she said.

Baker has worked with five different LCSS superintendents during her time as board chair. She said there were times when the board underwent stressful moments but added that currently, the board is doing well and working together.

She said serving on the board has been a rewarding experience, one on which she placed a lot of effort to make sure things were done correctly. Often times there were courses and meetings and contracts that needed to be read and understood. The job is much more complex than just showing up for meetings. And with which she everything she was tasked was done with the children’s education and well-being at the forefront.

Baker taught elementary school students for three years, moved on to middle school education and then high school.

“That was my niche,” she said about teaching at Liberty County High School for 14 years.

“I enjoyed teaching high school students, and I enjoyed coaching at Liberty High,” she said.

In her younger years, Baker said she wasn’t sure what path her life would take.

“Growing up, my other five siblings were all good athletes and I was an average athlete,” she said. “I remember saying, ‘What is my gift, Lord, what is my gift?’ And as I got older, I realized what my gift was, and it wasn’t in athletics, it was in the education arena and dealing with people. And I feel good about that. It gave me a good feeling to find my gift.”

Baker said learning to be a good chairwoman took some time. It also meant developing new procedures for the future.

“When I first came on board, there was no governance handbook,” she said. “We developed that after we got here. There was nothing to go by. No blue print, nothing, but all that is in place for the next board chair.”

To learn to be an effective leader, Baker attended a lot of conferences and talked with a lot of people. But in doing her job, she said placing the needs of the students and staff took priority.

“When I came out of education, a lot of people didn’t really know me, but they got to know me over the years,” she said. “I hope that I have made them proud. I hope that I have taken care of their babies the way they wanted me to. And I am just so grateful because we’ve watched the graduation rate increase and watched the dropout rate decrease. We’ve stayed within our budgets and we’ve managed the money and kept kids safe, and I am just grateful for the opportunity.”

And her service has always been under the guidance of her faith.

“I’ve always tried to be humble,” she said. “That was one of the requirements when I ran for this office. The Lord required me to stay humble. Stay humble, take care of His children and He would give me the desires of my heart, and I will tell you, He has done that for me.”

Baker said when she told her family of her plans to retire, they were a bit shocked at first.

“I think it is time. I think 47 years is enough,” she said.