OpEd: What the DeKalb County Board of Education Must Do Next

The DeKalb Board of Education must immediately consider whether any financial improprieties have taken place over the last 2.5 years.

This is a guest post! Tracy Brisson is a parent in Dr. Horton’s new district, in DeKalb County, Georgia and also a friend of the blog. Before I let her continue, a few quick notes on timelines this week:

• Tuesday 10/14 at 9:00am CT: District 65 has an emergency Board Meeting with an agenda including “Appointment of Board Officer”

• Wednesday 10/15 at 9:00 am ET: The DeKalb County School District will have an emergency meeting and executive session.

• Wednesday 10/15 at 2:15pm CT: Dr. Horton will be arraigned in Chicago at the Dirksen Federal Building (219 S. Dearborn)

This blog is still 100% free and I’m not paying Tracy anything, so if you appreciate her update from Georgia, click the link below to buy her a coffee.

Tracy, the floor is yours!

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In April 2023, I sent multiple emails to the DeKalb County Board of Education recommending that they not hire Dr. Devon Horton as our next superintendent. I also suggested that they ask the Georgia School Boards Association (GSBA) to continue the search or hire a different search firm.

Not only am I the parent of a child who attends DeKalb County Public Schools, I am a former school district administrator and educational consultant who worked on budget, human resources and recruitment issues in New York City and for other districts and charters over a 15-year period.

As a former recruitment professional, I know that past performance and habits predict future performance. To me, it was clear that Dr. Horton’s record as an educator did not match the record that GSBA and the board were publicly touting.

Evanston news coverage and parent social media showed the school board and district staff loved him, but teachers and families did not. Despite some wins in culture and climate around student discipline, student achievement and enrollment declined faster than any neighboring IL district during his tenure. In my opinion, as a parent, his performance in DeKalb reflects this same pattern after 2.5 years here.

But I was primarily concerned about how Dr. Horton flouted contract rules while serving as superintendent in Evanston and spent taxpayer money extravagantly, as reported on repeatedly- with receipts- on this Substack. Thursday’s indictment prompted me to review my emails from April 2023. I did not realize how specific I had been about my concerns regarding Dr. Horton and his ability to be a good financial steward. The incidents involving contracts and missing disclosures mentioned in my emails to the board members were the core of the federal indictment issued on October 9, 2025. They had been reported in the press before the vote.

At the time, then Board Chair Dijon DaCosta called these “just allegations” to the AJC. Dr. Horton absolutely deserves his day in court, but we must be honest with ourselves. These accusations have never been about something truly questionable, like an incident between two people where no one else was present. These allegations have a detailed paper trail that existed in April 2023. I know I am not the only parent or community member who flagged this, and both the GSBA and the Board are accountable for ignoring the evidence presented to them about Dr. Horton’s candidacy.

Whether the allegations were proven to be 100% or not, hiring involves managing risk for your organization.

In February 2025, I became more concerned about whether Dr. Horton was replicating extravagant spending patterns in DeKalb County after he convinced the Board to purchase a rundown office building for $6.5 million in an executive session during the November 2025 board meeting (the same executive session where Dr. Horton received a $35k retention payment). Based on my professional experience, the editor of Decaturish asked me to look at the supporting documents from the purchase (I was given a research credit in the story). I am not surprised that the building is still vacant 11 months later.

While I was already an involved parent- joining committees, attending meetings, and volunteering- the building purchase prompted me to pay more attention to monthly board meetings, committee meetings, and download available financial reports. And that routine increasingly made me concerned about how vulnerable our district is to the same issues listed in the indictment. I agree with Dan Whisenhunt, the editor of Decaturish: It is time for Dr. Horton to hit the road.

I think the DeKalb Board of Education must learn from the mistakes of the District 65 Board and take the following actions this week.

1. Condemn the Activities Listed in the Indictment

Many members of the DeKalb Board of Education believe their primary role is to act as cheerleaders for the district. It is not surprising that one of their first actions after the indictment announcement was to reassure the public about stability in leadership (#ISTANDWITHDCSD) while putting him on paid leave.

Dr. Horton’s lawyer has released a statement that does not confirm nor deny his “conduct” in Illinois, but claims it does not matter, because the charges are not relevant to his work in DeKalb County. While the public understands that there are legal issues regarding Dr. Horton’s contract with the district that require discretion, we must hear from our board members that they do not believe any “progress” they have seen in our district is worth engaging in alleged criminal activity with public funds. Saying this publicly or putting him on leave should not be a difficult decision.

Do not make any parent, taxpayer or state legislator wonder about your moral position on this.

2. Refer Known Issues with District P-Card Purchases to the Proper Authorities

Counts 14 and 15 of the indictment against Dr. Horton accuse him of embezzling funds by using the District 65 P-Card to purchase gift cards, vehicle maintenance and other items for personal use. Tom has uploaded many of the receipts associated with these counts.

While most audits are presented at the full DeKalb Board of Education meeting, the recent Purchasing Card (P-Card) audit was presented to the Audit Committee on September 4, 2025. It received little fanfare. According to the audit (presentation and report), there were many irregularities in the district’s P-Card use, including:

• Some users were charging more than $5K a day or $20K a month;

• Some users were making purchases in unapproved categories; and

• A lack of enforcement of purchasing limits for the superintendent and school board members

The auditors also reported in their letter;

Our engagement did not include a detailed examination of all transactions and was not designed, and cannot be relied upon, to discover all errors, irregularities, or illegal acts, including fraud or defalcations, that may exist. Had we performed additional procedures, other findings of significance may have been reported to you.

During this meeting, the audit committee members indicated that details of the audit had to be discussed in executive session.

Since the indictment, members of the Atlanta media and individual parents have submitted open records requests for the statements and receipts associated with Dr. Horton’s P-Cards. These documents will be circulated online within weeks, if not days. On the November 2024 statement for one of Dr. Horton’s P-Cards (he allegedly had two), it lists a charge for an evening cocktail party and dinner at the Skylounge Rooftop Bar at the Glenn Hotel in Fulton County for $3,486.91. The event, estimated to have hosted around 65 people, featured an open bar, according to one of the documents signed by the Superintendent’s Office. (Here is the other document)

The June 2025 MUNIS report, which includes all vendor charges for fiscal year 2025 (July 1, 2025-June 30, 2025), shows another charge for the Glenn Hotel for $2,965 in October, likely a deposit. The statement from the Glenn Hotel also indicates somebody made another $3,137 payment in November. It does not appear in the MUNIS report or on the credit card statement and it was paid with a Mastercard, not a Visa. Based on the receipts, it is possible that this unknown person or company paid for the alcohol.

To ensure that the person or organization that paid the $3,137 bill did not do so in exchange for favors or benefits from the district, the district should release the name of the payer when requested (they have thus far refused to provide that information).

There are many other high-value charges at hotels that were likely incurred on a P-Card (vendor code 9999) from July 2024 to June 2025. Unfortunately, not all P-Card purchases are uniformly recorded on the MUNIS report as they should be.

If any board member or employee has witnessed evidence that individuals have used the P-Card for personal benefit or in violation of existing regulations and laws, they must refer the matter to the appropriate authorities now to avoid becoming the next Individuals A, B & C in an indictment.

3. Review Contracts under $50K for Patterns Similar to the Indictment

According to the same MUNIS report for FY2025, 304 vendors were paid between $20,000 and $50,000, the contract limit that requires Board approval. These contracts were worth approximately $10 million. I spot-checked ten of these contracts, and although I may have been lucky, I found two vendors who are former employees of Dr. Horton’s in my sample.

In the new fiscal year, which began on July 1, the school district paid right-wing influencer & Fox News Analyst Gianno Caldwell, who is regularly promoted by Donald Trump on Truth Social. He was paid a $25,000 fee via his LLC, Caldwell Strategic Consulting, according to the July 2025 MUNIS report.

Caldwell was the speaker for the 2025 staff convocation, where, according to a social media review of the convocation;

This dude is a divisive political correspondent who stated in both his book and speech that welfare is “fine” but should not be used for multiple generations just because people “get lazy” (aka welfare queen stereotype as if cyclical poverty isn’t a thing)

Attendees also reported he led an “inappropriate” prayer.

While the district posted the 2024 staff convocation video featuring local news anchor Fred Blankenship, who appears to have not been paid, the district did not post the video of this year’s event. Caldwell, who does not speak on education as a topic, is registered with a professional speaking agency, which charges a fee of $10,000 to $20,000.

Why Caldwell? DeKalb County is extremely Democratic, with 82% of the county’s voters supporting Kamala Harris in the November 2024 election. Dr. Horton famously told the Wall Street Journal that “If you’re not antiracist, we can’t have you in front of our students.”, meanwhile Caldwell is glad “DEI is over.”

In 2019, Dr. Horton and Caldwell appeared together on an episode of The Laura Ingraham Show.

The Board of Education must reassure the public that contracts under $50,000 were not used as a slush fund for people with personal connections to the superintendent.

Evanston readers: Since Caldwell delivered his speech to staff in DeKalb, he has indicated that he may run for the Senate in Illinois.

4. Strengthen Conflict of Interest & Disclosure Policies & Hire an Inspector General

The Board of Education does not have the capacity to approve & review every contract under $50K. However, they are responsible for ensuring that, as part of their oversight, someone does. It is well past time for the Board to establish an independent Inspector General position responsible for managing the financial disclosures of all management employees, as well as creating and enforcing conflict-of-interest standards and resolving any arising issues. With a $1.6 billion annual general fund budget¹, there are too many opportunities for waste, fraud, and questionable ethics.

At the September 2024 Board Meeting, a contract with the company Solution Tree was placed on the agenda. Former board member Joyce Morley notified the board that the current Chief of Schools, Michelle Dillard, was an existing subcontractor for Solution Tree and may benefit. No one else on the board thought this was an issue worth discussion and the contract passed with five votes.

In May 2025, the district purchased books that Ms. Dillard co-authored from Solution Tree. Despite questions from principals and teachers, no answer was given regarding the appropriateness of this conflict of interest, whether she was paid to write the book, whether she received royalties from each book sold, or whether a waiver had been granted for the conflict and by whom. This is a significant weakness in governance for a public organization.

According to the June 2025 MUNIS report for FY2025, we paid Solution Tree $368,421 across 77 invoices.

5. Reframe the Board’s Relationship with the Georgia School Boards Association

Tom wrote about the conflicted nature of school board associations much better than I ever could. Many DeKalb board members act as if they are hostages to the GSBA’s whims and have implied that they would have lost their accreditation if they had not chosen Dr. Horton, despite the ethical and legal concerns with his candidacy.

Other districts in Georgia, including the Savannah-Chatham district, attracted more and better-qualified candidates by using recruitment firms that specialize in these searches during the same superintendent recruitment cycle as DeKalb’s. DeKalb’s unsuccessful search was not solely due to DeKalb having a problematic reputation. School districts across the country have troubled reputations, yet they still attract reformers with positive records who seek challenges. It was because GSBA’s efforts and guidance were inadequate.

Superintendent Horton announced at the last board meeting that GSBA was honoring the DeKalb Board of Education for being Distinguished. Examining the award criteria reveals that many of the requirements involve participating in GSBA training sessions and completing documents with the assistance of GSBA consultants. There may be a lack of award-winning school districts in the state because others understand that it is more efficient to work with other vendors who provide the same services.

In FY 2025, the DeKalb Board of Education paid GSBA approximately $83,000.

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As a parent and concerned citizen, the last two and a half years have often felt surreal. In particular, over the previous nine months, I would watch meetings of the DeKalb Board of Education, where members would lavish immense praise on every mundane action by Dr. Horton. An hour later, I would read coverage of Evanston’s 2025 school board and city council elections, where candidates were forced to denounce the hiring of Dr. Horton five years ago because of his financial mismanagement of the district and school construction.

It has felt absurd to tell myself that we would not end up in the same place.

I am a member of the Exceptional Education Advisory committee with the recently named interim superintendent of DeKalb County Public Schools, Dr. Norman Sauce. I find him to be kind, ethical, have a keen interest in the lives of students, and a real devotion to his work. I have concerns about the rollout of the second year of his Gifted program changes, and sometimes think he exaggerates the progress his teams have made (though I do see much legitimate progress!). But like many parents, I would love to be engaged in disagreements about strategy with my school district… instead of, you know, monitoring them for potential embezzlement.

My final thought: I am not from Georgia- I grew up in a gritty fishing town like the ones you might see in an early Ben Affleck movie. Because I love content with strong New England accents and education, Instagram recently showed me a reel that merged both: a bunch of moms yelling at school board members in a parking lot in Falmouth, MA about a decision the board had made. While I found the women’s accents glorious, I do not condone yelling at elected officials in parking lots.

However, the video made me realize that the DeKalb Board benefits quite a bit from a culture here in Georgia, which I did not experience growing up: a culture that encourages kids, especially women, to grow up and be “nice” and not cause a stir. As parents begin to organize over recess, testing, redistricting, and general irritation with the light oversight of the last few years, the board should expect that they may not be able to count on that forever.

PS: If you are a DeKalb County parent who is interested in requesting and reviewing open records from the school district, please feel free to contact me.

1. Tom note: this is more than 4x the entire City of Evanston budget and 10x District 65.