St. Marguerite School has new principal this year

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Trisha Kirkbride

TOOELE — St. Marguerite’s School Principal Trisha Kirkbride knew for many years her life’s calling was to be a teacher. While she took a circuitous journey to that end, she knows she has traveled a faith-filled path.

Born in Utah, Kirkbride was raised in Carlsbad, Calif. but said she always felt like she had two homes because she spent as much time as she could with her grandparents in Sugar House, Utah.

Growing up she attended public schools in Carlsbad, but after high school moved back to Utah to be near her grandmother.

She went on to receive an associate’s degree in criminal justice from Salt Lake Community College and graduated from the Police Officers Standards and Training course. She was then hired at the Salt Lake County Sheriff’s Office, where she served in a variety of assignments, including  as an internal affairs detective, in investigations and as lieutenant over the movement critical response team.

Despite her rewarding law enforcement career, Kirkbride always knew she would someday be a teacher, she said.

During her years at the sheriff’s office, she obtained a bachelor’s degree in speech and organizational communication with a minor in English from the University of Utah. She then pursued, at  the University of Southern California, a master’s in teaching secondary English with a focus on English language learners.

About 10 years ago, Kirkbride and her husband, Ryan, who works in construction, moved to Stansbury Park and at first attended St. Marguerite Parish. However, once their  son, Quentin, now 8, was old enough they enrolled him in preschool at St. Francis Xavier School, which was close to where Kirkbride worked, rather than at St. Marguerite’s. The family also attended St. Francis Xavier Parish.

Still, Kirkbride began to feel she was not supporting her local parish and school, and decided to move Quentin to St. Marguerite School. She came to know then-principal Lorena Needham and shared with Needham her own desire to become a teacher. Needham encouraged her, so after much prayer and discernment, Kirkbride retired from law enforcement after 20 years on the job and the following day began to teach at St. Marguerite’s. That year she taught a combined fourth/fifth grade which, she said, she “absolutely loved.”  

All of that occurred around Lent, which Kirkbride calls “a powerful season for me.”

“I fell in love with the school and the students,” she said. “I just knew I was in the right place and that the Holy Spirit had guided me. It was a faith-filled decision.”

The following year, Kirkbride taught sixth, seventh and eighth grade, then took a year off to be a stay-at-home mom, but once Quentin entered first grade she felt the spirit nudging her back to the work, she said, so she returned to teaching at St. Marguerite’s.

When Needham retired at the end of the 2017-2018 school year, Kirkbride realized she had always felt drawn by the Spirit to administration and that her previous career experience in management had prepared her for that role.

 “I felt in my heart that at some point  I would come full circle,” she said. “This is where the Lord wants me and I am fully focused on his will.”

“Trisha comes to us with a lot of solid community experience,” School Superintendent Mark Longe said. “She has been a teacher at St. Marguerite’s, so she has great insight into the workings of the school and a great set of administrative skills. She has already done some wonderful things for the school and we are confident she will do a wonderful job at St. Marguerite’s.”

One of Kirkbride’s goals is to increase enrollment at the school. She is also working to put together a home and school association (similar to a parent-teacher association).

“I would really like to see St. Marguerite’s be known throughout Tooele and Salt Lake counties for its  academics, Catholic identity and character development,” she said.