East Lyme — Board of Education member Marlene Nickerson announced that she will resign from the board, effective Dec. 18, after 11 years of service.

In announcing the resignation at Monday's board meeting, Board of Education Chairman Tim Hagen said, "Marlene has been absolutely an outstanding board member."

He said that "whenever there was a time to have tough negotiations Marlene was one of the people that stayed up until three in the morning at Central Office carrying on with those negotiations. ... You were involved with this every year and did a fantastic job."

The vacancy for the remainder of Nickerson's term will be filled by a Republican and interested people should contact the Republican Town Committee, Hagen said. 

"It's been an honor and a privilege to serve for 11 years, but my timing is just that I believe it's time to give somebody else a chance," Nickerson said in an interview after the meeting.

She said she's hoping to give someone else an incentive to come forward, with both of her children being older now and East Lyme having a vibrant community with many people with talents and ideas and younger children in the district who might want to serve.

"There's a lot going on in this community now with the redistricting and the budget issues that we're up against," she added. "There are so many people who attend our meetings and have questions and comments. They might make very good Board of Ed members themselves."

During her tenure, she said she enjoyed learning about the intricacies of the school district and "being enlightened by all of the people who come together to make decisions and work hard for our kids."

At Monday's meeting, Hagen was re-elected as chairman and Al Littlefield was re-elected as secretary.

k.drelich@theday.com