DeKalb grew Maurice McDavid from the ground up.
Born and raised in the Barb City, he called the Eden’s Garden neighborhood home.
He spent kindergarten at Lincoln Elementary School, transferred to Tyler for first- and second-grades and completed third- and fourth-grades at Jefferson.
For fun, he played pickup football and basketball games with kids who lived closer to the Normal and Hillcrest area or pedaled his bike to Burritoville for a bite or to the 7-Eleven for a Slurpee.
At DeKalb High School, he was team captain of the gridiron squad – and, when he graduated, it was evident that the community had done its job and done it well. McDavid enrolled at Knox College to prepare for what has become a successful career in public education.
Now, almost two decades later, the double-alum of the NIU College of Education is nearing the final stages of returning the favor in a way few ever will experience: opening a new school – from the ground up.
McDavid is the “grateful” first principal of DeKalb Community Unit School District 428’s Dr. Leroy A. Mitchell Elementary School, which will welcome its inaugural group of students this August.
The unique gig brought him back to the city, and the school district, of his youth and early professional years as a teacher and administrator.
“I was in West Chicago, working as a principal at a dual-language building – loved it, loved it; those are my people – but I also am a man of faith, and I had been praying about it, and it felt like it was time to make a shift,” McDavid says of his choice to leave Turner Elementary School.
“I actually resigned in West Chicago prior to securing a job, just knowing that I needed to get closer back to home in DeKalb. At that time, I was already fully aware that this building was coming along,” he adds. “I thought it was a great idea to have a building right here in this neighborhood, so I applied.”
DeKalb Superintendent Minerva Garcia-Sanchez is glad that McDavid felt the calling to return to the district he first joined in 2010 as a teaching assistant, taught eight-grade and served as a dean of students as well as an assistant principal.
“Maurice McDavid’s proven dedication to student success and innovative leadership make him the ideal principal for Mitchell Elementary School,” Garcia-Sanchez says.
“His vision aligns perfectly with our district’s goals,” she adds, “and I share his immense excitement for the vibrant, high-achieving learning environment Mitchell Elementary School will undoubtedly become under his guidance.”
Excitement? Indeed.
“Initially, there was the high level of excitement – of, ‘Oh, man, I’m so ecstatic to be back home and to get this opportunity’ – and then eventually you realize that getting the job was probably the easiest part of it. Now, there is the doing of the job,” McDavid says.
“Very quickly, I really thought about the immensity of the task. I thought about how important it is that it’s done well, that it’s done with the community and not to the community, and so that has really been something that has driven my work,” he adds. “I also feel like that the district has been a great partner with that, because that’s the district’s mindset as well. I’ve felt supported in that journey.”
OPENING AN ELEMENTARY SCHOOL requires a multitude of tasks.
Some are obvious. Hiring an assistant principal. Hiring teachers. Hiring staff. Hiring crossing guards.
Others are not. Determining morning arrivals and afternoon departures. Setting class times. Setting lunch periods. Planning, communicating and practicing safety procedures for emergency situations. Picking a mascot.
Others, meanwhile, are foundational.
“I’ve been very intentional, with the guidance or our Teaching and Learning Department, about partnering with the community, getting community voice in everything that we’ve done – our vision, our mission,” McDavid says. “We’ve set academic goals for next year. We’ve started looking at the data of the students who are coming.”
McDavid, who earned his Ed.S. in Educational Administration in 2023 and his master’s in Educational Administration in 2016, relishes it all.
With three classrooms at every grade level from kindergarten through fifth-grade, as well as special education programs, art, music, P.E., office staff, paraprofessionals and cafeteria and playground staff, Mitchell will employ about 70.
Among those faculty is District 428’s first dedicated STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, Math) teacher who will enjoy the use of a well-equipped STEAM lab.
“STEAM will be something that we definitely bring into everything that we do – as a district, that’s something we’ve moving toward – and we’re grateful to partner with Meta,” he says. “They’ve given some grants to help bring along Project Lead the Way, a science curriculum across the district, but we’ll be the first to have this STEAM position.”
Interviews and hiring began in October, says McDavid, who’s “got a good chunk of people who are moving from within the district, and then a good chunk of people who are coming from NIU who were student-teaching in the district, and then another set of people coming from outside the district, which is really exciting because they’re going to bring those new ideas.”
The team is strong, he says.
“One of the amazing things about getting a chance to open a building is that, initially, the staff was me – and so I’ve had a hand in choosing every single person who’s come here,” he says.
“More importantly, they’ve had a hand in choosing to come here. They’re choosing to be at Mitchell. They’re choosing to leave a place where maybe they have been more comfortable, or that they already know, to come and be here.”
And, he adds, “they’re choosing to serve in this area of our community and to serve those families that will come. It has been an intentional choice by everybody involved, and I think that makes a difference.”
Well, it’s more than “think.” He knows it will.
“I’ve done one-on-ones with all my staff who are coming, and I’ve asked them, ‘What are you most excited about in terms of coming to Mitchell in the fall?’ – and the No. 1 answer has been being a part of building something. Building a culture. Building a community. Building expectations, and then setting goals and meeting those goals,” McDavid says.
“That’s been very invigorating,” he adds. “It speaks volumes to their character – to their ‘why,’ to use that Simon Sinek language – and that their ‘why’ is really the students, the families and the community and, ultimately, leaving the world a better place.”
McDAVID IS BETTING that Mitchell will do the same.
Just the eponym gives him confidence, he says.
“I think a lot about this building being named after Dr. Leroy A. Mitchell, who I’ve had a chance to know personally,” McDavid says.
“I understand in part – I don’t know that I fully understand – but I now in part his legacy, and I think that’s one of the things that speaks to choosing to come here and work here: We recognize that the legacy we want to leave, as a staff, is one of kindness, one of empathy, one of care and, ultimately, one of academic excellence,” he adds.
“When we think about his work with the CHANCE program and bringing students through college – not just getting them here but bringing them through college – that’s what we’re looking for. We’re looking to have kids on a path toward success, and the staff has been on board.”
Part of that success will come from initiatives McDavid will launch this fall, including the Student Voice Council, multiage groups and promoting concepts of leadership.
“Increasing student voice is something we’ve been focusing on as a district, making sure that students get a say. Students will have an opportunity to talk about some of the goals that we’re setting,” he says. “We also are going to run a ‘house system’ where students will belong to one of three houses and get a chance to know kids outside of their grade level.”
He already knows that they’re eager to become Mitchell Monarchs, a name chosen from student recommendations accompanied by hand-drawn pictures and rationales and voted on by the community.
“My favorite thing has been being in the different school buildings throughout this year and having kids ask me, ‘Are you the Mitchell principal?’ And when I say yes – ‘I’m going there next year!’ Getting to show them digital renderings of our playground and to show them pictures of where I’ve walked in the building has just been exciting.”
Like their teachers and administrators acting on a school-level, Mitchell students also will determine and pursue their personal academic aspirations.
“We are going to be implementing things where students will be responsible for setting goals and then tracking those goals along the way to know that they’re moving forward and having success,” McDavid says. “Ultimately, in terms of the learning experience, we want students to know that they can – and then to do it. That’s the end-all, be-all.”
BUOYING HIS CONFIDENCE are two graduate degrees from the NIU College of Education, one preparing him for his work as a school principal and the other qualifying him to become a superintendent.
“The master’s program and the Ed.S. both took my lens as an educator and expanded it,” McDavid says.
“Moving into that principal program, I began thinking about not just, ‘How do I make things work in my classroom?’ but ‘How do I make them work as a building?’ If something good is happening in my classroom, I want to share that with a neighbor, and if something good is happening over there, having them share it with me,” he says. “That helped me at building level to really think about those systems.”
His Ed.S. provided “that next step further,” he adds, “really thinking about, ‘If something good is happening in that building, let me see how I can take that and adapt that and make it work for my building and vice versa.’ ”
During a master’s class with Jim Surber that covered the Response to Intervention model, McDavid was inspired to implement a strong multitiered system of support in his building “to make sure all students get what they need to achieve.”
“In my first principalship, outside of this district, I walked in that door with that being what resonated the most,” he says. “We were able to see that develop and grow, and I’m looking forward to doing that here. We’ve already got great systems here in DeKalb, and I want to build on those.”
Classes on the superintendency showed him the value of being a good neighbor – public events planned for back-to-school time include a ribbon cutting Friday, Aug. 8, and an open house Saturday, Aug. 9 – as well as teaming with other local service organizations.
“I’ve had an opportunity to meet with Opportunity DeKalb. I’ve met with the University Village Collaborative. I’ve talked to Joe Mitchell, who pastors New Hope Church but also is running Project Hope. Barb Food Mart is another one,” McDavid says. “We’re building those community partnerships, and that’s really important.”
Augmenting that is the Mitchell School Council.
“It’s based on the local school councils out of Chicago, and will include six parents, two community members, two students and four teachers to make sure that we’re getting a well-rounded voice,” he says. “We know that, at the end of the day, schools don’t serve just students. They serve a community. That’s definitely something I’ve pulled out of the Ed.S. mindset.”
McDavid also is ready to continue his own chance to set a positive and aspirational example.
“Honestly, what I am most grateful for is my opportunity to serve. I didn’t have my first Black, male educator until I was 21 years old and a junior in college, and so it is not lost on me that I get to lead a building and be in front of kids as a role model for all students and, especially, kids who look like me and maybe have not seen themselves reflected in the classroom,” he says.
“DeKalb actually has done a great job of recruiting diverse teaching staff – I’m very aware of that – but I’m getting a chance to serve and to be somebody who believes in the students and the families of the Uptown, or Annie Glidden North, neighborhood,” he adds. “This feels like the culmination of my educational career up to this point. I’m only 37, and it feels really neat to be able to do this.”
