Starting Monday, December 11th, Skyler Nash will be inaugurated as the Cambridge Public School District’s new Chief Strategy Officer. As part of the role, he will be a senior-level advisor to the Superintendent, helping her establish and set goals for the district, monitoring and supporting staff-led projects, and serving as her liaison in meetings with the public, parents, the Deputy City Manager, and more. He will be one of the people held most responsible for CPSD’s upcoming educational initiatives and decisions as a district. Before this job, Nash had most recently served as the Chief of Staff for the Minneapolis Police Department, helping them implement antiracist policies after the death of George Floyd.
However, community members have criticized Nash’s pay-grade and lack of experience — despite these accolades, Nash is only 25 years old, has no experience in the field of education, and graduated from college two years ago.
Shawdee Eshghi, a parent of a child in Graham and Parks, told the Register Forum that she has reservations about the amount that the Superintendent is spending on administrative positions. “Does she think that’s the best use of money right now?” Eshghi asked. “Why is this Superintendent hiring so many administrative people, when that money could be better spent on field trips, teachers, paraprofessionals, and interns?”
While the initial Chief Strategy Officer job description required that applicants have a Master’s degree in a related field and offered a salary of $176,070.57 – 189,851.53, the highest degree that Nash has achieved is a Bachelor’s. The district had the application portal open for four weeks and determined that Nash was their best candidate—his salary has accordingly been modified to be between $153,329.13 – 169,193.40 due to this discrepancy. According to the CPSD website’s “rewards and benefits” page, starting salaries for Cambridge educators are $55,000. If they have a Master’s degree or higher and have at least ten years of experience as a Cambridge teacher, then they might be able to reach a salary between $95,000 – $106,000, a sum that is much lower.
“In administration, I feel like a lot of them at least should have some educational experience on the ground floor, actually working with teachers,” Charity Rounds ’25 told the Register Forum. “The people who actually matter are the teachers, so they should be paid at least close to that amount, if not more.”
Still, while Nash is relatively young, and his salary is comparatively high, he has managed to lead plenty of impressive projects during his time in college and beyond it. Nash balanced his studies with two jobs, working as a public policy and research analyst in the City of Burlington Racial Equity Inclusion and Belonging Department, as well as leading Next Generation Justice, a nonprofit working with prosecutors to create more equitable policies. In 2020, he also managed the successful campaign of Kesha Ram, who became Vermont’s first senator of color.
“We discussed each candidate and it was evident that Mr. Nash was the preferred candidate,” said Sujata Wycoff, CPSD’s Director of Communications. “Mr. Nash has been a leader with issues related to equity, diversity, and inclusion.”
