While one Illinois school district invents a new six-figure administrative post with a fancy title, a Colorado school psychologist is heading to prison for sexually assaulting the very students he was supposed to help — and the contrast tells you everything about where the public education establishment's priorities actually sit.
Sycamore School District 427 approved a contract June 16 for Maurice Davis as its first-ever "chief academic officer" at a proposed salary of $157,000, according to Shaw Local Enewspapers. Davis previously served as "chief strategy officer" for Freeport School District 145 — another title that begs the question: strategy for what, exactly? Student outcomes? Or bureaucratic self-preservation?
Sycamore Superintendent Kristen Campbell praised Davis for bringing "strategic planning acumen" and a "deep focus on organizational learning" — the kind of jargon-soaked language that signals everything except whether kids will actually learn more. Campbell said the hire "strengthens our ability to deliver a future-ready, student-centered PreK-12 academic vision while ensuring public transparency and structural stability." A lot of words. Not much about reading, writing, or math.
The position was created as part of an administrative restructuring Campbell proposed at a May 12 school board meeting. A signed contract has not yet been made public.
Meanwhile, in Jefferson County, Colorado, former school psychologist James Michael Chevrier was sentenced this week to an indeterminate prison term of five years to life for sexually assaulting a student. According to the Denver Post, Chevrier worked at Green Mountain and Bear Creek high schools when he was arrested in May 2025 after a Safe2Tell report. A jury convicted him of sexual assault on a child by one in a position of trust — a felony — along with felony drug charges and misdemeanors for contributing to the delinquency of a minor. He was acquitted on charges of soliciting child prostitution and attempted child sex assault.
Deputy District Attorney Holly Spease said Chevrier "used his position of trust to identify, target and exploit vulnerable teen girls who came to him for help." The charges involved three students. The victim told the court that Chevrier's actions robbed her of her freshman year and her trust in adults.
Two school districts. Two stories. One system that finds money for ever-expanding administrative cabinets with ever-more-creative job titles, while the people actually left alone with children include predators who exploited that access. The education bureaucracy grows. The jargon multiplies. And parents are told to trust the process.
The question isn't whether schools need another "chief" of something. It's whether anyone in these buildings is minding the store — or just expanding it.
