Girard’s return to district reunites old partnership

Tracy Tran

Coppell High School assistant principal Brandon Girard dances on the senior bridge before school with English III teacher Sean Smith and honors chemistry teacher Courtney Crosby on Oct. 16. Girard returned to Coppell ISD after four years in Brookings, SD.

His previous experience in CISD involved working closely with CHS Principal Laura Springer. When she heard Girard was moving back to Coppell, she called and offered him the assistant principal position. 

“Anything he can do to make our students a better person, anything he can do to help them through the process they’re going through, he will do,” Springer said. “He hasn’t changed a bit. That is exactly who he was when he left and that is exactly who he is right now.”

Girard’s own high school experience at Canby High school in Canby, Minn. (class of 2002) shapes his interactions with students. 

“It makes sense that I’m still in school, because I enjoy the experience,” Girard said. “I enjoyed the sports community and choir and pushing myself with the arts. I’m in a place I enjoyed as a kid.”

Even though he credits his time in high school for his love for student activities, Girard was inspired to become an educator by his summer job coaching youth baseball for the Canby summer recreation program from 2000 to 2002.

“I had a bunch of parents approach me at the end of the summer and tell me I should think about going into education,” Girard said. “It didn’t spark with me right away, and when I first started college, I was going for physical therapy. After some of my health courses, I missed the interaction that I had with kids, so I reflected on what those parents told me after those practices, and I made the shift into studying elementary education.”

Girard’s wife, Kirstin, also works in education. She is currently the assistant principal at Hughes Elementary in Prosper ISD, but was previously the principal at Dakota Prairie Elementary in South Dakota. She and Mr. Girard made the decision to move back to Coppell together.

“South Dakota is very conservative financially, and education is not as well funded as it is [in Coppell],” Mrs. Girard said. “As a teacher there, you’re expected to do a lot with not a lot of support, whereas here we have instructional coaches to support us. It’s very different, and we’re lucky to be here.”

As an administrator herself, Mrs. Girard is familiar with how the role differs from being a teacher.

“[Mr. Girard] is one of those administrators who left the classroom, not because he wanted to be the boss, but because he realized he would have an opportunity to serve more kids outside the classroom,” Mrs. Girard said.

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