Dale Martin Named New Superintendent of Coldwater School District

Former Bay City Chief to Take Over July 1 at Branch County district

June 18, 2008
By: Dave Rogers

Coldwater Community Schools has chosen former Bay City School Superintendent Dr. Dale F. Martin as its next superintendent pending contract negotiations, according to Board President Sandra Sexton.


Martin, 64, has recently served as the superintendent at Downers Grove (Ill.) School District 58, and will take over for Milli Haug in Coldwater starting July 1.

According to Coldwater school officials, also being considered for the job were Brian Metcalf, assistant superintendent for human resources and instruction at Marshall Public Schools, and Storm Lairson, superintendent at Reese Public Schools.

The Coldwater School District has about 3,500 students and operates four elementary schools, Legg Junior High, Coldwater High and Franklin alternative.

Dr. Martin has been superintendent of the Downers Grove, Illinois, school district for the past 10 years, previously serving as superintendent of the Hanover County (Wilmington) North Carolina Schools and the Waterford School District, Oakland County, Michigan.

He was graduated from Saginaw Arthur Hill High where he was involved in athletics. Dr. Martin has bachelors and masters degrees in education and earned a doctorate from Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo.

He began his education career as a custodian in the Bay City Public School District when he was a student at Delta College in the 1960s. He was named deputy superintendent to Raymond Duch in 1985.

When Martin succeeded Dr. Raymond Keech as Bay City school superintendent in 1988, David Phillips of The Bay City Times wrote: "The new school chief is among only a few administrators who have spent their entire professional career in one district, rising through the ranks of teacher, assistant principal, principal and assistant superintendent."

When he took the Bay City post, Martin had been offered the superintendency of the Swan Valley district in Saginaw County.

In 1991 he moved on to the Waterford (MI) school district.

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