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After being a secretary at the high school for 28 years, Brenda Aagard has been through a lot of changes, but this year brought upon something she had never seen coming.
With COVID, many things changed—not only in her job, but the environment she was in as well. Now with masks and social distancing, things are not the same as the past years she has worked here.
Another change she has had to go through is having a whole new staff working in the office. Everyone she used to work with has now retired or moved on. So she was very nervous for this upcoming year, but they have adapted and they all get along and work very well together.
“She holds this office together, especially since we’re all new. If we didn’t have Brenda, I don’t know what we would do,”
said Tori Hansen, secretary at NS. “We all go to her a million times a day asking her questions because she has been here so long she just knows everything.”
Change is a part of her job and she has had changes since the very first year of working at the school. Most aren’t as dramatic as this year, though.
“Every year, there’s changes, ‘’ said Aagard, who now holds the title of financial secretary. “Sometimes the changes are good and we move forward with new technology, and then sometimes I’ve actually seen, where we’ve made changes and then over the course of the years, we reverted back to what we used to do.”
Even the personal responsibilities she has in the school have changed in many ways.
“We used to do handwritten receipts when I started, and then we would have to turn around and enter them in the
computer, which was old,” Aagard said. “This new accounting system is phenomenal. Everything is just in the system with an easy check and balance system. So I’m grateful for technology. We’ve come a long way.”
Through the changes, she has gotten to know many different people and has seen many exciting things, including all
the pranks.
“Years ago, we had a custodian that everyone loved,” Aagard said. “One day I came at 7:30 in the morning. First thing I did was come and open my door. As I opened my door, I flipped on a light switch and there, right in my doorway, was the skeleton from the science lab. I screamed and backed into my wall and about knocked myself out. The custodians were down the hall waiting for the scream and they laughed.”
Aagard enjoys many things at her job. She loves being in the high school environment and enjoys being around the staff and students. However, one of her least favorite parts of her job is getting subs for classes. She has to wake up early and find subs on very short notice. With COVID, it’s been a bigger challenge because of teachers calling in sick and subs not wanting to do it anymore.
Aagard is a mother of four daughters and a grandma of 17 grandkids. A few of her hobbies are biking, gardening, sewing, reading, and organizing things. Her favorite hobby is gardening and working on the lawn. Aagard has lived in Sanpete County her whole life. She attended school at NS while she was young and then she raised her children here. She lived in Mt. Pleasant all the way until she got married and moved to Fountain Green with her husband.
She graduated from NS as a student body officer and Sterling Scholar. She also was on the drill team and played sports at the same time. So she was very involved in the school, even while she was young. Throughout her life, she has had to make different decisions that have brought her to where she is now. One of
her main focuses was family. Her and her husband have now been married for 43 years.
“We were sheep ranchers back when my kids were growing up,” Aagard said. “I didn’t work until my kids were older. I’ve also done business stuff my whole entire life. I wanted to be an accountant, but I got married and had kids instead.”
She made many memories being a sheep rancher and feels as though she is a farmer at heart. At one point they owned about 5,000 head of sheep. She and her family have always loved the outdoors.
“We actually used to wash ourselves off in the water troughs, like pioneer kind of stuff,” Aagard said. “The kids remember that, getting in the water and splashing around like it was a swimming pool.”
Aagard is someone many people look up to and love.
“She always puts others before herself,” said Jared Strait, Aagard’s grandson. “It doesn’t matter if you’re family or not, she just loves helping people. She is honestly a great example to me and someone I want to be like because of how generous she is with everything she has. She just gives freely.”
One quality most people notice in her is how willing she is to help people.
“She is always willing to help anyone, no matter what,” Emily Strait, Aagard’s granddaughter said. “No matter who they are or the situation they are in, she is willing to help them.”
No matter if they are family, friends, NS staff or students, she is willing to help and be kind to them.
“I love how sweet and kind she is,” Hansen said. “She has the biggest heart of anyone I’ve ever met. That’s what I like about her the most, is how she’s always being so kind to everybody and doing something for other people.”
When she retires, she plans on traveling a lot more with her husband. She has been to Hawaii, France, Germany, and California. She isn’t sure how soon she will retire, but she knows that when she does, she will miss being at the high school.
She believes working at the school is a world of entertainment if you attend all the events the school offers. And she enjoys going and supporting performances the high school puts on. She loves to be involved in the community.
“She is definitely a person in the community that everyone looks up to and appreciates,” Hansen said.
