Tremayne Clardy: You know, public education is designed and built to be the great equalizer in our society. 

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Introduction

Janet Pilcher: Hello everyone, welcome to the Accelerate Your Performance podcast. I’m your host, Dr. Janet Pilcher, founder and president of Studer Education. 

Last week we finished our rapid-fire series full of quick tips to tackle everything from process improvement to retaining talent. Today we’ll shift back into a deeper exploration of continuous improvement. 

I’m excited to bring you an interview with a leader whose work sets the standard for thoughtful, systemic improvement, Dr. Tremayne Clardy. Dr. Clardy is the Superintendent of Schools for the Verona Area School District in Wisconsin. He brings over 27 years of experience, along with a vision for academic excellence that’s grounded in equity. 

He’s also a regular speaker, panelist and moderator at the state and national levels, in addition to having completed the American Association of School Superintendent’s National Superintendent Certification. And just after we recorded this episode, Dr. Clardy was named the 2026 Wisconsin Superintendent of the Year. Congratulations, Dr. Clardy. 

So join me today as I welcome Dr. Clardy to hear how he narrowed his district’s focus to literacy and why leaders must be service-based to create a true culture of excellence. 

Let’s dive in.

Interview

Janet Pilcher: It’s with great pleasure that I welcome Dr. Clardy to our show today. Welcome. Great to have you with us. 

Tremayne Clardy: Well, thank you so much. It’s really an honor to be able to speak with you and speak about public education and represent the Verona Area School District. 

Janet Pilcher: Sounds great. So let’s jump right in. Start a little bit, if you would, Dr. Clardy, sharing a bit about your background as a leader and what drew you to Verona Area School District, I think, four years ago. 

Tremayne Clardy: Absolutely. So I’m entering year five, which went by really fast. So this is my 27th year of having the honor of serving students and families in the field of education and going into my fifth year as a Superintendent of Verona Area School District with multiple leadership roles and other districts across Wisconsin and then one stop in Illinois as well. 

Really, the journey has been mostly traditional. My first leadership role was as an assistant principal in Harlem School District in Illinois before becoming the principal for Senate Middle School in Madison Metropolitan School District and then moving over to the Central Office where I was a Deputy Chief of Schools, Chief of Schools for Elementary, and then was graced with the opportunity to be considered as a candidate for the Verona Area School District. 

And while I loved everything I was doing with the Madison Metropolitan School District and really enjoyed the community, Verona Area is a neighboring district that you keep an eye on because, you know, there was a lot of, I think, opportunity for growth, new facilities, a community that was really invested in the progression of education throughout the area and throughout our municipalities. And a staff that was really, had a desire to engage in a deeper way to ensure that all students regardless of demographics have the opportunity for world-class education and was looking for a leader to take that next step with them. 

So looking at all the attributes that Verona Area School District had to offer, I did apply and was chosen as a finalist and finalist and finally as the candidate to become the next Superintendent, succeeding a 16-year Superintendent. 

Janet Pilcher: Wow.

Tremayne Clardy: So it was right in the middle of COVID. 

Janet Pilcher: Yeah.

Tremayne Clardy: He said it’d be your first Superintendent job, you might as well do it in a complex time, but it’s been everything I could ever dreamed of. The ability to work in this community that has really embraced the opportunity to become the national model of equity grounded in excellence and to have a full community and the dynamic staff having that same focus and cause and ensuring that every student has opportunity has just been a joy to work in service for. And as long as me and my team continue to recognize that we are service-based leaders, we will continue to do great work. 

Janet Pilcher: Yeah, gosh, so good. And so hard to find. I mean, 16 years as a Superintendent, you hardly hear of that anymore. But to follow that and coming in in the COVID times. But. you know, I love what you’re saying about there’s a very focused vision within your district and one that you align to and relate to and that you have alignment within your team. So that’s a, I know that has to be a great feeling for how you can build yourself and your leadership team as you move forward. So a nice place to be to, you know, to really have great impact. Dr. Clardy. 

Tremayne Clardy: Absolutely. I couldn’t ask for anything better. I see this as my final educational stop. I really enjoy the work that we’re doing. I can’t speak highly enough of the team that we have around me. And when you walk into each classroom where the magic of education really happens, we have such dedicated staff that care about the humanity of each child and ensuring that they have the top or excellent education along with that positive relationship. 

Janet Pilcher: Yeah, so good. And I’ve had a chance to talk to Dr. Greco along the way and we have conversations about the work that you do, your leadership, and your team. And, you know, she’s talked about creating that unified and aligned system. And so talk a little bit here. Let’s go a little bit deeper with why is this systemic alignment important to you as a leader, you know, on behalf of the community that you serve? 

Tremayne Clardy: That’s a great question. And what’s so powerful here is that our strategic framework was truly built off of the voices of our students and our community and having such a thorough process and ensuring that our priority areas that we focused on were really met the needs of the multitude of our families across demographics. 

So when you think of our strategic framework and our priority areas of community collaboration, inclusive teaching and learning, student agency, value, belonging, wellness and mental health, we understand that sometimes districts–and I wouldn’t call another district’s moves a mistake–but I would say that some people look at them as individual priorities, and we look at them as full components of things that must happen simultaneously in the totality. You can’t go, you know, five priorities and do one per year. You have to have all components of them at the same time. 

And we think of the five priorities that I just stated, you know, there’s not one that you want to put on the back burner and not one that you want to now wait and allow for processes to come in place because so they’re all crucially important to ensuring that each student has a high sense of belonging within our organization: that we support the ever-growing needs of the wellness and mental health, that we bring our community as true partners to a communication into the space and that that sense of value belonging, which is the true spirit of public education, comes to life. 

You know, public education is designed and built to be the great equalizer in our society, and it can’t be the greatest equalizer if not everyone has access to all the opportunities that we have within our organization. And so our priorities are really built to ensure that we look at any barriers that may be in place for access, dismantle those barriers, and ensure that we are including all students in the great opportunities to have a world-class education through our public education system. 

And so I say all that because there’s such deep meaning and such belief behind it. And while there are leadership moves, it’s the beliefs and the priorities that we have put in place that allow us to be a dynamic team and to be in true partnership with our community because our community believes the same thing that’s happening within our schools. 

Janet Pilcher: Yeah, so nice and just that deep commitment, I mean, holistically, you know, just having everybody connected to that. So important, so important to the, how we really provide the best support to students and families that we can all across the way. So thank you for what you and your team are doing there. 

Let’s talk a little bit about as you’re applying and executing to that framework, what are your biggest strengths right now? And then talk a little bit about what your potential challenges are as you’re moving forward. 

Tremayne Clardy: That’s a great question. Our strength has been our narrowing our focus to understand that literacy has to be the driving force behind all of our work. And there are so many ways you can move through education, but, and if you find yourself becoming the Swiss Army knife that you never get to the true outcomes that you desire. And so us narrowing that focusing in and understanding that literacy would be our best way to ensure access to all of our programming, all of our classwork, and making sure that students are literate to enhance their learning. 

But and also as you think about aligning to our mission within the Verona Area School District, which is to ensure that every student thrives and is prepared to be successful in a diverse global society and simultaneously understanding that there’s so much unvetted information that students have access to that you have to have those true literate skills to understand what is research based, how to have the critical thinking skills to make decisions around what you’re reading, and how are you processing and vetting what’s false and what’s real in terms of the amount of information that comes out in our society. And so that’s no easy task. 

And when you think about pre-K through 12, you have to ensure that it’s not just a statement that how are we developing those tools and how are we supporting our staff to ensure that they can mplement those strategies in their classrooms? 

So our community has really given us the benefit of time. And so every single Monday within the Verona Area School District, we engage in professional learning communities and we start school late. Our students and our staff come in at the normal times and we get an hour and a half to sometimes two hours worth of deep professional learning communities together with peers, working with peers around grade level or content areas to ensure that our priorities of literacy and understanding the needs of each individual child come to life. It can be a strain on our families but they understand the benefits that come out in the classroom. And that is, you know, we talk about where is the space and time for that to happen? That is the, we call it the untouchable time within the Verona Area School District. We have to have that space and time. Nothing takes priority over it and we are able to do that over the course of every week within a school year. 

You can imagine the amount of great dialogue that you have with the expertise from classroom to classroom, sharing work, sharing best practices, digging deep into the curriculum, understanding the nuances of teaching and showing evidence of learning. It really becomes a magical space. I don’t use the phrase, “the magic of education happens in a classroom” lightly because then when that light bulb comes on, that truly is a magical moment. And, you know, we’re very proud that we’ve been able to create spaces where staff can enhance their skills and unlock those magical moments happen with far more frequency. 

Janet Pilcher: Yeah, so good. I mean, congratulations on getting that commitment from not only internally with your team but really getting your parents and your community to support you in that. I mean, and that is engagement. 

When we look at conversations that we have with our teams around what’s working, what’s not working, looking at the data and I mean, that’s when our teams become really engaged in what they do every day and deeply connect to their work. And I think you’re just giving great evidence of how you’ve been able to support that. 

Tremayne Clardy: Absolutely. And so I know you also asked me about opportunities, and we are not a perfect organization. 

Janet Picher: [laughs]

Tremayne Clardy: And there is no perfect organization but the quote, Vincent Lombardi, you know, “The journey to perfection, you’ll always find excellence,” and that’s what we’re trying to do is find excellence on our journey to perfection, which is a state well, we never hit. 

But with those opportunities that we have for growth within our organization, and it begins with a mindset shift and then also implementation. And that’s in our processing or working around advanced learning opportunities for our students. I think in some models, advanced learning had been seen as some type of a pull out cohort where I moved to a different space. And we have really shifted our philosophy that every student can really benefit from advanced learning opportunities within a classroom. And we like to build cohorts within the traditional classroom. So that peer to peer interaction continued to happen. The enhancing of teacher skills that we are doing grade level and above content within our spaces, and identifying different advanced learning skills, but really trying to keep that as part of our MTSS system and not as a separate system outside of our classes because that is a, in essence, a non-traditional methodology. 

We’ve really worked hard to explain our “why” behind these moves and how it benefits multiple students and really not focus on exclusion but really adhere to our focus on inclusion and advanced learning is an inclusive art when done the right way. 

Janet Pilcher: Yeah, so good. The thoughtfulness, Dr. Clardy, that you and your team move forward with is admirable. I mean, and you can tell just from the conversation and what you all are moving forward with. So, again, just appreciation for that thoughtfulness about how you’re leading the way with providing teachers, staff, and students, and families with the best that you can and continuing to strive for that. And I agree. I always say as a leade,r too, with as soon as we think we’re good, we’re always humbled. [laughs]

So, one of the things, and as we come to the close, with the last question, as I’ve talked to Dr. Greco, we’re highly focused and her spectacular work that she’s done over the years with improvement. And she talks about you all being early, your early focus on improvement and process improvement today. Can you talk a little bit about the benefit of that, really building that improvement focus into the work and hardwiring that as you move forward? 

Tremayne Clardy: Yeah, I appreciate Dr. Greco’s partnership with us as we have been on a journey, and I think that the journey began with ensuring that we had coherence throughout our organization. So, in essence, it doesn’t matter which department that we engage with, we want to make sure that we were providing the world-class outcome for our clientele and our clientele, our students, staff and families. 

And so as we continued to do that work as well, we began to think about what are the everyday practices, and you get around and have that we must hardwire that are consistent within every setting and wire these practices, it’s the one that we wanna focus on. And I think she has helped us understand that the community expectations and our student and staff expectations of what they receive should be consistent along any setting and hardwiring that comes with practice and accountability to each other and one another. 

I think the hardest thing has been to, when you do a multitude of things, of what are the two or three things that are “must dos” every single day within our organization and that’s been a, if I’m not even sure if this is a real phrase or not, but if it’s a privilege to have a challenge, that’s the one that’s a- 

Janet PIlcher: [laughs] That’s correct. 

Tremayne Clardy: Yeah, to have that, it’s really an honor to have that challenge, to be able to narrow down that, no matter what, that anyone that engages with the Verona Area School District knows they’re gonna get these three things consistently and they’re gonna be things that benefit them and benefit the children. 

I mean, we’re a district of a little under 6,000 so we’re not that big, I think, as compared to the national North’s, but we’re big enough that if you don’t have systemic preparation and understanding of what should be consistent and thoughtful and thought about among not just leaders, but cascading throughout our buildings that we can tear to fiber of who we really are if that consistency is not consistent. 

So again, I can’t thank Dr. Greco and the team that we’ve been working with enough in helping us identify those priorities to hardwire and to ensure that that messaging and ways of working is cascading throughout our organization on a consistent basis while measuring the outcome to ensure that what we have identified as those great practices are benefiting our students and staff and families in the right way. 

Janet Pilcher: Yeah, so good. And that discipline, I mean, you can tell just from the conversation that we’re having, you know, you have great discipline as a leader and instill that great discipline in the people that you work with each and every day. And it is that consistency of practice that seems so easy, but is really difficult to do and live that each and every day. So again, appreciate your commitment. 

So let’s close Dr. Clardy with just, you know, more, it gets to go back to you as a leader. As you think about the number of years that you’ve spent in education and where you are as a leader, if you were looking at leadership and saying, you know, “leadership excellence, this is what it really means. This is something that’s core to a leader in order to really strive for excellence,” you know, what would those one or two things be from that personal standpoint, from who you are? 

Tremayne Clardy: From who I am, I know Simon Sinek made it popular, but I fundamentally understand my “why.” And my “why” is that I firmly believe, I get up every single day and I go to bed every single night knowing that education is truly the conduit to freedom. It’s the only way that you are truly free in our society is to have the educational opportunities that we provide to our community and provide to our staff. 

You know, the ability to make decisions around where you live, what you buy, where you work, all in essence go down to that education that all of us need to be able to have that decision-making power and to be able to live the life that we desire. I don’t use the words “the great equalizer” without understanding the ramifications of what I’m saying because I truly, truly, fundamentally feel that that is the one way that allows any demographic’s circumstance to be overcome because of the equality of the education provides. 

And so because I have such passion of freedom and understanding that freedom is only accomplished through education, I really feel a deep purpose, and I’m able to be inspired by the ability, the opportunity to have impact on thousands of lives every single day. And that drives me to want to get better each day, to stay humble in who I am and understand that I’m always in the business of service and service to others. 

Janet Pilcher: Thank you so much. Stay that course. You’re needed so much in our profession. Thank you for your time today. Thank you for what you do. And please extend our gratitude to your team. Thank you. 

Tremayne Clardy: Absolutely. Thank you so much. I appreciate the opportunity. 

Conclusion

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Janet Pilcher: Thank you, Dr. Clardy, for sharing your journey and commitment to building a unified, aligned system. And thank you too for prioritizing weekly professional learning communities so your people can be developed, share best practices, and stay engaged and deeply connected to their work. 

It’s like you said, our work in education is fundamentally about providing opportunity. As long as we remember that, we’re on the right path. May we all let that powerful purpose drive our dedication to serving students and families every single day. 

As always, thank you for tuning into this episode of Accelerate Your Performance. I look forward to seeing you next time as we continue to work together toward organizational and leadership excellence. Have a great week, everyone.