Known and loved by most, Carla Hardy, an assistant principal is leaving her current position on campus at the end of the year to help teachers across the district in Fall 2023.

The Hardy name is embedded on campus as the performing arts center is named after her husband, Jared Hardy, who, after years of outstanding service to Chisholm, proved himself a lead ranger.

Hardy was the choir director from 2012–2022, and Hardy said her positions on campus have been built on commitment, but that was not in her plans early on.

“I never wanted to be a teacher,” Hardy said. “I got most angry at my [college] advisor when he told me I’d make a great teacher. I thought only crazy people do that.”

Hardy’s road to becoming a teacher was due to her husband’s influence.  

“My husband was a teacher, the choir director,” Hardy said. “I got to be a part of what he was doing, and I just remember being in awe of the relationships he had with kids on the large scale and the experiences he was getting to have with them. I guess I had just gotten really jealous of my husband.” 

Their impact on the campus has reached not only students but also impacted teachers like Ranger choir director Shelby Hill.  

“She’d been a huge help and has given a huge amount of guidance for what’s expected,” Hill said. “She knows exactly the standards of this program she helped develop the program[choir]. She is the bestest—better than the restest.”

According to Hardy, the relationships formed through being a teacher are one of the greatest things about being a teacher.  

“You recognize that any time whether that’s in teaching or just in your lives in the hallway being able to be a part of someone else’s story is the greatest legacy that you could have,” Hardy said. “That’s what I hope I’ve been able to do – not just through teaching but in sharing lives with people.”

Even before the doors opened on the campus, Hardy said she and her husband “wanted to be a part of building something that we were proud of.”

“My family is from Lubbock, and we moved here for no other reason than to open Chisholm Trail,” Hardy said. “We knew that in 2012, my son was 6, and our daughter was 3, we wanted to be here, at this high school, ’til they graduated. We came with the idea that we were all Rangers already.” 

After serving as a teacher or admin on campus in some capacity over the last 10 years, Hardy said she started to feel called to advance her career after her husband had to resign after he got sick in 2018.

“I knew it was the right time; I left the classroom last year, and I just began to realize, especially after my husband had to leave the classroom because of his illness, that my responsibilities to my family were a little bit different, so I needed to take this time to advance my career outside of the classroom,” Hardy said. “My thought process began to shift just a little bit. I began to notice more and feel a nudge to help be a part of other teachers’ lives and adults’ lives, along with my students, which was a nudge that ‘hey, it’s time where maybe you can help teachers be more effective teachers.’” 

Despite the changes that are to come with her transition off campus, Hardy said she will always bleed purple and gold.

“My people that I admire the most are here teaching and serving as administrators and pare-professionals on this campus,” Hardy said. “It really is one of my favorite places on the planet.”