Sarah Bedinger plans to be in line with other school board members and district staffers to shake hands with graduating Sequim High School seniors, including her son, Daniel. It will be the third time she’s handed a diploma to one of her own children.

Three days after that, Bedinger expects to go through a graduation of her own.

The Sequim School Board director of nearly 11 years announced last week that the June 16 board meeting will be her last.

“My last (child) is graduating and I’ve been working full time,” she said at the district’s board meeting on May 20. “I feel like it’s time for someone new to step in.”

With Bedinger resigning, the school board will be tasked with appointing a board member within 90 days. The appointee would fulfill the remainder of Bedinger’s term, which expires in November 2015.

Bedinger explained she’s been heavily involved with schools since 2000, starting at Greywolf Elementary School’s Parent-Teacher Organization and Greywolf School Advisory Committee.

She joined the board in 2003, edging out incumbent David McHugh for the director Position 4 seat.

Bedinger works as an administrative CPA at Baker, Overby & Moore Inc. in Port Angeles. Her full-time work there and the graduation of her third child (of three) helped her find the right time to resign, she said.

Bedinger said she started to consider resigning last year, but “I just didn’t know exactly when. I wanted to get through the (upcoming) superintendent evaluation.”

Bedinger said she learned many things from people she started with on the board to those board members she works with now — John Bridge, Walter Johnson, Beverly Horan and Michael Howe.

She said she hopes her replacement will keep an open mind to ideas from fellow board members and others.

“Meetings can be long and arduous, but you always learn something, Bedinger said. “Not everyone knows everything. (Employ) steady leadership, not reactionary leadership.”