News out of Georgia: Former D65 Consultant Suspended by DeKalb County Schools

... and District 65 paid her outside the window of her contract

Thought I would share two new stories out of Georgia:

• Indicted ex-DeKalb superintendent paid friend $25K for speech – plus $20K for books (WSB-TV)

• Indicted ex-DeKalb superintendent hired leader who was suspended over $4K book buy (WSB-TV)

The first story involves the DeKalb County Schools (during Dr. Horton’s tenure) hiring FOX News commentator Gianno Caldwell to be the keynote speaker at their 2025 convocation, discussed already in this post written by Tracy Brisson. The WSB-TV story reveals that DCSD also purchased $20,000 worth of Mr. Caldwell’s books. In 2019, Dr. Horton and Caldwell appeared together on an episode of The Laura Ingraham Show.

The second story also involves the purchasing of books - this time $4,000 worth of books written by the District’s CEO of Schools, Michelle Dillard. This story was also covered in this post by Tracy Brisson and originally covered by WSB-TV in 2025:

Morley says Dillard co-authored a book with the organization. She says Dillard used district dollars to buy that book for principals across the district to read.

She says she brought up the alleged conflict of interest at a school board meeting last year, but nothing happened.

“No one wanted to really talk about it, the board denied it, the superintendent denied at that time, they all denied that she was actually affiliated with this organization but it was in black and white,” she said.

She said the book even mentions Dillard by name.

“There’s a page in the book that says, ‘If you want Michelle Dillard to do consulting or training, contact Solution Tree.’ Well, she’s a full-time employee for the DeKalb County School District,” Morley said.

According to WSB-TV, the District suspended her for four days and required her to pay back the money after the Board investigated books she wrote for a publisher, Solution Tree.

DCSD originally signed a $218,660 contract with Solutions Tree on 9/9/2024 to offer services relating to Professional Learning Communities (PLCs), which Solution Tree defines as:

Defined as "an ongoing process in which educators work collaboratively in recurring cycles of collective inquiry and action research to achieve better results for the students they serve" (DuFour, DuFour, Eaker, & Many, 2010, p. 11), PLCs stand as a cornerstone for educational excellence and student success.

The paper cited here (DuFour, DuFour, Eaker, & Many) is authored by Solution Tree, and you can read it here. Ms. Dillard is listed by Solution Tree on their website as the author of the book called Culture Keepers. According to the DCSD June 2025 reporting, the District went over budget and spent $368,421.09 in FY2025 including $63,337 on books.

This wasn’t her first scandal, in November 2023, DCSD hired her husband Donald;

The DeKalb school district hired Donald Dillard as a student engagement coordinator. His supervisor is Markisha Mitchell, the district’s chief of continuous improvement. Upon his hire, Donald Dillard also filled out a relative disclosure form that stated the relationship.

District 65 Connection

Prior to this, Ms. Dillard was Assistant Superintendent with the Jefferson County Public Schools, where Dr. Horton had previously served as Chief of Schools. During this time, Ms. Dillard consulted with District 65, you can view her contract here - she was paid $450/hour to remotely provide coaching, leadership development, and PLC services:

The original contract was from October 2020 to July 2021 and extended to October 31, 2021. Over the course of this time she was paid:

• Fiscal Year 2021: $57,725 (Source: FY 2021 Annual Statement of Affairs)

• Fiscal Year 2022: $0.00

• Fiscal Year 2023: $12,500 (Source: FY 2023 Annual Statement of Affairs)

Fiscal year 2023 is notable because despite the contract ending in October 2021, District 65 still paid two more invoices to Ms. Dillard post-expiration:

• Invoiced: 6/29/2022 (Paid 7/14/2022) $3,500

• Invoiced: 1/25/2023 (Paid 2/15/2023) $9,000

The last payment was while Dr. Horton was applying for Superintendent roles - he was announced as a finalist for DCSD on 4/4/2023. Ms. Dillard is a reference on Dr. Horton’s resume for his application to DCSD and was hired a few months later on 07/10/2023 (resume) as the Associate Superintendent, Leadership & Schools. In that same July 2023 meeting, DCSD hired former District 65 Director of Culture and Climate Elijah Palmer and failed to hire Antonio Ross, a former CPS principal, indicted with Dr. Horton.