‘Ready for a new challenge’: Middle school principal leaves district for opportunity

A few days after school let out for the summer, Brian Garman sits in his nearly empty office at Brown County Middle School. For the last nine years, he has been the middle school principal, but after more than three decades of working for Brown County Schools he is leaving to pursue a new challenge.

Garman began working for Brown County Schools as a part-time social studies teacher and coach after he graduated from Indiana University in 1990. His titles may have changed over the last 32 years of working for the school district, but his love for the schools and this community never did.

“This was my first job out of college. I always felt an intense loyalty to the community for that reason. I am not sure people feel that sense of loyalty like they used to, but I certainly do,” Garman said.

“It’s been a great place. I am going to be sad to leave, but I am ready for a new challenge as I kind of end my career.”

Garman’s office is still in the same spot as former Principal Roland Goodpastor’s when he hired Garman to work in the building years ago.

He is taking many memories with him as he prepares for the next chapter of his career, but those times as a young teacher and the friendships he made when he first started working for the district are the ones that stand out the most when reflecting back over his time here.

Garman said that Goodpastor and his wife were like parents to him and other teachers in the building.

“They would have us over and as we all got married they would have us all over to their house to eat. Mitzi and I became very close with Roland and Dottie. We vacationed with them. Those were probably the great memories, of my early time here when you don’t have too many cares in the world,” he said.

“It’s kind of crazy to think about, 32 years,” he continued as he snapped his fingers.

“Just like that. So many people I worked with when I first started are not working anymore and some have passed away. It does go by very quickly.”

Not only did his career start in Brown County Schools, but so did his family. In a meet cute for the ages, he met his wife Mitzi after he started teaching here. He was the football coach and she was the cheer coach. The two will continue to live in Unionville and will be married for 30 years this August.

Mitzi is also a teacher in the district. Both of them left the district this year to work as administrators for Beech Grove City Schools next school year. Brian will work as the director of personnel and human resources and Mitzi will be the communications director. The couple has two daughters who both work in Nashville, Tennessee. One is a neonatal intensive care nurse and the other works as a graphic designer.

Garman was the first assistant principal in the then-junior high school. At that time the title was dean of students before it was formally switched to assistant principal. The new principal of the middle school will be Gavin Steele, who served as assistant principal under Garman for four years before going to work as principal at Van Buren Elementary School.

“In the back of my mind I kind of thought that would be a logical step for him at some point,” Garman said of Steele taking over as middle school principal.

“I always thought this age level would be perfect for him. I am excited for him. I feel like he fits really well with this age level and he will do really well. … I think he has a good way of connecting with middle school kids. Just his demeanor in general. When he was here that was one of his big strengths he was just able to connect with those kids really well.”

New chapter

Garman worked as the athletic director in the middle school before moving to the high school to manage athletics there. He worked there for 11 years before returning to the middle school to be principal.

The word “success” comes to mind when thinking about his time as the high school’s athletic director.

“We won some sectionals and brought some really good events to the school. We developed Eagle Park into what it is today. When I first took over there were no baseball or softball fields, no soccer field out there. We were using Deer Run Park,” he said.

He credits former superintendents Lynn Reed and David Shaffer for taking input from staff and coaches to make Eagle Park a reality. Building Eagle Park allowed Brown County Schools to host a variety of sectional, regional and semi state events including the well-known Eagle Classic.

In 2005, Garman and a committee of volunteers worked to start the Hall of Fame at the high school, which is another accomplishment he is proud of when thinking back over his time here.

Garman began thinking about starting a Hall of Fame to honor former athletes after he took over as athletic director at the high school and started putting all of the athletic records together. The Hall of Fame was a way to honor past athletes not just from Brown County High School, but the other high schools in the county before they consolidated in the early 1960s.

“Just bridging that gap I think was really nice,” Garman said.

He said he enjoyed working as athletic director, but the time commitment and labor involved in hosting events led him to think about his next step and using his administrator license to be a building principal. As Garman was thinking of his next move, an opening at the middle school was announced when former Principal Shane Killinger moved to the high school to be principal there.

Being principal of a building filled with 13 and 14 years olds is not easy, but Garman said he enjoyed working with that age group for over 20 years as a teacher, athletic director, principal and assistant principal.

“At the middle school they are still very enthusiastic about you and they want you to know, they are willing to share about their life, what goes on with them every single day. They have enthusiasm. … You’re kind of irrelevant at the high school,” Garman said.

“They (high school students) know everything and you really don’t know anything. Middle school kids are not that way. They want to share their life with you. They want to tell you what’s going on and what they did over the weekend. I like that.”

Watching the middle school students thrive in STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) curriculum and being principal when the middle school was STEM-certified by the Indiana Department of Education are highlights from his time here.

The school offers Project Lead the Way courses including engineering, automation and robotics, biomedical, computer science, STEM Lab and music technology classes.

A part of the IDOE STEM certification rubric is to have strong corporate partnerships. During his time as principal, the middle school has worked with corporations such as Cummins, Faurecia, LHP Engineering, Cook Medical, Purdue Polytechnic, Designscape Horticultural Services and Columbus Regional Hospital as part of that rubric.

“I can’t say enough about them. The companies and those people that are just amazing,” Garman said.

Each spring, the school engages with the corporate partners for the annual Corporate Problem Solving Challenge, a “real world” simulation for all of our eighth-grade students. This spring the school partnered with Cummins, Faurecia, LHP Engineering, Purdue Polytechnic and Maya HTT.

“They can’t comprehend that this is the CEO of Cook Medical who is taking time to interact with our kids and talk about their projects, ask them questions and give them feedback,” Garman said.

“They will someday, but right now I don’t think they quite understand what that means. I get to be proud of our kids and the things they do. They never cease to amaze me what they’re capability of at this age level. We underestimate them a lot.”

There is a reason Garman stayed in one school district for 32 years: the community.

“This is an amazing place. The people here that is what I will miss a lot. The people I have gotten to know over 32 years who are very special people. This is a really special place. I had a lot of opportunities to leave over the years, but just never did for that reason,” he said.

To be leaving the only school district he has known for his education career is an odd feeling, Garman said.

“I suppose it will hit me more after I leave,” he said.

“You come to a point where you feel like there’s one last challenge you want before you retire. I thought about just retiring. I considered that and doing something part time. When this job opened up at Beech Grove with Dr. (Laura) Hammack (former Brown County Schools superintendent), who I think the world of, this was an opportunity to do something different and be a new challenge for the next seven or so years.”