By Tyler Dahlgren

First-year Bertrand Community School superintendent Nicole LeClaire’s voyage into education began as another noble journey ended.

It really is funny to be sitting here, she almost laughs, behind the superintendent’s desk in a small school in the middle of rural Nebraska. If you’d have told her 10 years ago (heck, a year ago) that this was in the cards, she’d never have believed you. But life’s a trip, and LeClaire is right where she’s supposed to be.

Her story, believe it or not, starts at sea.

LeClaire served 12 years in the United States Navy, the final three on sea duty that was arduous. Her daughters were growing up, and she wanted to be there for all of it. It was time for a new chapter. LeClaire and her ex-husband and their little girls moved to Texas. She had a political science degree and a passion for politics, but not the slightest idea what her next move would be.

“We’re driving into Texas, and I look up and see a sign that says ‘Become a Texas Teacher,’” she said. “I went, ‘Alright, I’ll try that until I figure out what I want to be when I grow up.’”

LeClaire applied for an alternative certification program through the Region 4 Education Center in Houston, handled six weeks of online coursework, and, just four months after getting out of the Navy, began teaching.

“I was scared to death,” LeClaire admitted. “I had been in a war zone, and I was scared to death about the first day of school.”

Buying into the often-exaggerated forewarnings of fellow teachers (“Don’t smile until Christmas, these kids are like sharks”) LeClaire talked herself into intimidation. She hadn’t been in school since she graduated. Could she really do this?

Then the kids showed up. One-by-one, they walked in her door, smiling from ear-to-ear. She shook their hands and gave them high-fives and her mind was quickly put to ease. This move was the right move.

“About two weeks into it, I was like, ‘This just might be the best gig ever,’” LeClaire said. “From that point on, once I let my guard down and allowed myself to be demilitarized, I guess you could call it, I just started having a blast with it.”

The rest is Texas history, but it doesn’t explain how LeClaire, a self-described city girl, ended up here in Phelps County. The contrast still makes LeClaire giggle a little. Her schools in Houston had 3,500 students. The village of Bertrand has 750 people.

It was 2017, and LeClaire was one of 30 teachers selected for a workshop at the Supreme Court. There, she met a social sciences teacher from Minden, Nebraska named Aaron Martin. LeClaire, divorced by this point, and Martin hit it off instantly. They kept in touch after the conference.

“I went to this summer workshop, met this guy from Somewhere, Nebraska, and the rest is history, I guess,” LeClaire said. “I started coming up to visit, or he’d come down to Texas. We did the long distance thing for about a year and a half, and then I sold my house, everything in it, and moved to Nebraska.”

The Cornhusker State left a favorable impression on LeClaire, who remembers being wowed by how green everything was on the three hour drive from Omaha’s Eppley Airfield to Minden.

“I remember feeling a sense of peace that I had never felt,” she said.

When it was time to head back to Houston, LeClaire felt reluctant. She was falling in love with this place. Nebraskans are sitting on a golden egg, she told her future husband, and they don’t even know it.

“I kind of felt like I was off the grid when I came up here,” LeClaire said. “I wasn’t stuck in traffic, I wasn’t dealing with the heat and the humidity and the mosquitos. Everybody was so neighborly. It was a culture shock, but everything was positive.”

It was a different way of living, and it sat right with LeClaire, who would half-jokingly refer to Minden as Mayberry to her husband. In 2018, she made the move to the middle of America, married the teacher and coach from Minden, and found a job teaching law and public safety in the new Academies of Grand Island Senior High. 

“That year completely changed my mindset of teaching,” she explained. “I fell in love with it again. I was kind of burned out in Houston.”

LeClaire had never talked education with anybody from outside of Texas, where she said decisions are made by the state board and there’s little local control of any kind. She heard Davis talk about life as a teacher in Nebraska, and was amazed at the differences.

“That first year in Grand Island, I was working my dream job,” LeClaire said. “Law and public safety, that’s what I loved. It was right in my wheelhouse. The administration was fantastic. Everything was great.”

Then the pandemic hit. The hour commute had started weighing on LeClaire before then. She enjoyed it in the mornings, but the afternoons were becoming taxing. LeClaire wanted to be closer to home, but open jobs teaching government in rural America are few and far between. In 2012, LeClaire had taken advantage of the Post-9/11 G.I. Bill and received her master’s degree in Educational Administration with no real intention of using it.

Maybe now was the time, LeClaire thought. It surely wouldn’t hurt to try. She filled out some applications, not expecting too much, and then wound up the principal of Kenesaw Jr/Sr High School, where she served for the next four years.

Her time in Kenesaw prompted LeClaire to learn more.

“I guess I’m kind of a lifelong learner, and I feel if I’m going to be critical of something, I need to learn about it,” she said. “So I went back to school to learn the superintendent job, just so I was more informed about the decisions that were being made.”

Taking courses through Wayne State, LeClaire was eventually notified that she was eligible to apply for superintendent jobs, though she had zero interest in doing so. 

“Why not?,” she was asked. “If you’ve made that much of an impact in four years as a principal, think about what you could do if you were the one making all of the decisions.”

That question stuck with LeClaire, whether she wanted it to or not. Though she’s an admitted wanderlust, LeClaire was never going to be a superintendent who jumps across the state. Her husband is similarly rooted, happily planted in the Minden area. Unassumingly, she put in one single application for a superintendent job in nearby Bertrand. 

“I thought, ‘I’ll go and get a barbecue sandwich for lunch and see what Bertrand is about,” she said. “I walked into the interview with zero expectations. If anything, I could see how Bertrand does business and then take some things back to Kenesaw.”

She thought wrong. Bertrand called with a job offer, before she’d even had the chance to tell her husband she’d applied. That was an interesting conversation in its own right, she joked. Twenty-four hours later, she accepted the offer and took the first steps towards acquainting herself with the community.

“Never in a million years would I have understood the dynamics of a rural school and its community before coming to Nebraska,” she explained. “The school is the center of the town, and if you’re going to be a superintendent at a small school, ingraining yourself in the community and becoming a part of the community is critically important. I don’t think you can be successful in the role if you’re not willing to do that.”

In six years, LeClaire has learned a thing or two about Nebraska and Nebraskans. Everybody’s connected, in one way or another. She brings up the famous “Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon” game and the built-in network that exists for Nebraska administrators and educators. These last handful of months, she’s relied on that network over and over again.

“That is something that Nebraskans should be very proud of,” LeClaire said. “Not being a native Nebraskan, those professional networks have been very important to me. If it had not been for those connections, I wouldn’t know anybody outside of the immediate circle of people I work with. I’m lucky, my husband is a great ambassador for education in Nebraska, so that has helped, but I have never been a member of so many professional organizations. That’s been very cool, and a unique byproduct of Nebraska.”

The first few months on the job, LeClaire spent learning. Things moved fast, but her life since 2006 has moved pretty fast. She managed the whirlwind, and said she hasn’t had a bad day on the job yet.

“One thing that I knew from the second I walked through the door was that the culture in Bertrand is strong, and it is one of traditional and historical excellence,” LeClaire said. “I have felt that every single day. I’m so proud to be here. I’m thrilled to be here. We have the best staff in the world. We have three custodians who keep this in tip-top shape. We have a cook who bakes bread fresh daily. We have incredible and new and veteran teachers who are all remarkable.”

Bertrand’s Board of Education was important in LeClaire’s onboarding. They’ve consistently been a joy to work with, she said. If you really want to LeClaire gush, ask her about the kids.

“We don’t have a lot of behavioral or academic issues, because the kids don’t want to disappoint their great grandpa’s legacy,” she said. “You have generations and generations of that history here. The kids have an expectation of excellence because of that tradition.”

LeClaire takes her job seriously, but she doesn’t necessarily always take herself seriously. During Homecoming week, she’s the superintendent who goes overboard on dress-up days. She hopes that spirit trickles down to Bertrand’s staff and students.

School is supposed to be fun, after all. 

“We have enough stress in the 21st century in all areas of our lives,” LeClaire said. “So if the staff can come to school and be happy and not feel that stress, that’s going to be directly beneficial to our kids. If we’re not having fun, why are we doing it?”

The bell rings, footsteps start echoing from the hallway beyond the superintendent’s office, and LeClaire smiles again.

Life’s a trip, and this is right where she is supposed to be.

Q: Best place to get a meal in Bertrand? 

A: The Blue Moose

Q: When you’re not in the office, what can we find you doing? 

A: I am reading a lot and being very intentional with my lazy time. I’m big on podcasts and audiobooks. I am also not too embarrassed to admit that I love reality TV, either.

Q: Favorite musician?

A: George Strait. The King.

Q: How about movie?

A: Coal Miner’s Daughter

Q: What’s the most rewarding part of what you get to do every day?

A: The start of every morning, when I see the kids get off the bus.