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Bartlesville Public Schools

Posted: Jan 22, 2019 2:50 PMUpdated: Jan 22, 2019 2:52 PM

Remembering Marta: A Champion for Education

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Garrett Giles

The Bartlesville Public School District remembers a long-time champion on Tuesday. Marta Manning, who served on the Bartlesville Board of Education for 20 years from 1991-2011, passed away on Tuesday, January 22. Manning heard the call to run for the Bartlesville Board of Education in 1990, and was elected in 1991.

Bartlesville Public School's Communication Director Granger Meador says he mourns with all of Bartlesville at the loss of Marta. He says he will always remember how Marta was always in it for the long-haul. That to Meador was special because she always put students first no matter how stressful finances may have been for the school district during the decades that she served.

Granger says Marta also knew the value in preserving history while also modernizing Bartlesville Public Schools. He says Marta had a burning desire to save Central Middle School when she joined the board because the historic building had fallen into disrepair. The building was saved in 1995 and the community re-invested in the building in 2013 with a bond issue that called for further renovations to the building.

 

Admiration for Manning ran deep. In 2009, she was presented with the prestigious Buddy Spencer Leadership Award after being named as an all-state board member by the Oklahoma State School Board Association. During the BPSD’s annual Teacher of the Year Ceremony in February 2011, Manning was celebrated with the Bartlesville Education Association’s Friends of Education Award.

 

During her time on the board, Manning held all three officer roles – clerk, vice president, and president – including the latter title from 2008 until her retirement. She served on a wide array of board committees. And just when it seemed she couldn’t possibly offer any more of herself, Manning would be seen on the board of the Washington County School Supply Drive, at meetings of the Academic Interest & Mentoring Society, and as a “grandparent friend” at Oak Park Elementary School, Meador says.

Meador would add that Marta proved that serving a community means you have to invest a great deal of time and energy while taking the time to listen to those around you.


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