Tracy, I’ve been desperate to hear from the Georgia people!! Thank you for your bravery in speaking up!! This Gianno Caldwell part of the story is too much. I can’t even wrap my mind around it.
Dr. Horton and the board literally had someone arrested here for their political opinions and fought on-stop with anyone they deemed MAGA, even if they were just like “please open the schools” during COVID. For him to turn and hire Gianno to lecture his teachers shows a real hypocrisy. Maybe he never actually believed all the stuff he said and just wanted power?
Nothing wrong with him being buds with Gianno, but it’s the hiring that is the problem. Public officials shouldn’t hire their friends!
So I did not put it in the story because I could not officially source it, but a school board member told me verbally that Caldwell is his former student. So take that for what it is worth.
I share with Tom the sentiment that a “conflict of interest” is a conflict of interest. But I will give you my take on appropriateness. I bought the book before I wrote the piece. I think there is a case for having him as a speaker to high school administrators in the middle of the year to talk about violence and his ideas on how schools can help, even though he is not an educator. He would still not be my choice, but there is a case. This was the new teacher event- K-12, where the intent is to get folks excited and motivated- and focused on academics. Last year, our MAP scores and ELA Milestones scores tanked. The number one thing I heard verbally is that the talk was depressing and it made a new teacher doubt if this was the district for her. It also backs up my overall assessment of Dr. Horton which I allude to at the beginning. He is more comfortable with culture and climate stuff and uses that as smoke and mirrors to hide the academic results and a lack of skills there. I’ll also add someone sent me a photo yesterday of Caldwell and the entire cabinet with his book strewn all over the room. So I assume we also bought books. Based on all available sales data, the book has not sold well. I could not get it at Barnes and Noble and only 3 rural libraries in all of Georgia (we are a big state) carry it. No library bought the electronic version either. Among the stories, the book has a lot of demonstrably false information about Biden and Soros whom he writes about as enemies. It is a political book from a political publisher. I do not think we should be spending tax dollars on political books- that goes for both sides.
The passage about the DeKalb Board getting an award from the GSBA hit home. There was a time when it seemed that there was a press release just about monthly from D65 touting either Horton or the Board getting one award or another when it turned out that there was not much going on here that was award-worthy. It was all a way of saying to the community, "Nothing to see here folks .... " so that the elected Board members and administration officials could duck much deserved scrutiny.
I have an additional comment about the board meeting on Tuesday Morning at 9am. A time when teachers and many stakeholders cannot attend. How is this transparent during a contentious time of deciding which schools to close? Also, what about the Google doc form sent to D65 community asking which school closing plan they would prefer. After the board meeting where the board seemingly conscientiously explained their thoughtful approach to the difficult issue, a form is sent that essentially implies it’s now a matter of how many folks respond, like a beauty contest? They just blew the tiny thread of good will they had.
I read a comment in the Decaturish from someone who described the Horton issue as a typical Illinois problem. My family home is in Decatur. I encourage residents to honestly look at what the board is doing now and historically. That there have been school issues historically is clear. What are board members doing with their cards? Why are they not aggressively moving forward on terminating Horton?
Thank you to Tracy for this article. Over the last few years since Horton took the job in Georgia I wondered how it was going. It looks like a continuation of the grifting that happened here along with a school board that rubber stamped EVERYTHING he did. It’s been horrible. Evanston has also relied on a culture of “being nice” and it has harmed D65 tremendously.
He's like the aliens in Independence Day. Once he's drained a district dry or ahead of his BS belt found out he finds a new mark, er, district to "save."
This great Simpson’s episode was a tribute to the classic musical “The Music Man” about roaming, slick professional big-time grifters preying on small-town rubes, not one by one, but going for the whole town of rubes at once in a giant swindle scheme, and then moving on to next town to repeat.
After Tom’s initial coverage, which was not under wraps (on top of what was uncovered when Horton was hired in Evanston) I was quite incredulous how the DeKalb board and its parents could hire him and act like he was a real peach! The greater fool theory plays out!
The two time hiring of Horton as Supt. Is a huge case-study of the merits of promoting within, and then simply budgeting some former supts as consultants for training. Go with who ya know!
I am a current DCSD parent and my mouth was agape reading this whole thing. I am appalled.
I just left a community school board meeting and they blamed the decline in enrollment on the declining birth rate. Excuse me? Declining enrollment is tied to the inadequate management of the school system. Full stop. Invest more time and money on what's best for the students and staff and less time and money on making them feel good about themselves.
Well done! I have even more alarming information that’s developing quicker than I can keep up with. I’ve filed four ORR’s and my attorney is about to make things even more messy for Horton et al.
Tom I’d love to write something about this as well as Tracy and I have been doing things quietly (or not so quietly at times) since 2023. The media contacted me in 2023 to ask my opinion since we couldn’t find a digital footprint of him anywhere. Guess who was on my phone the day after the indictment dropped….
Don’t take this personally but this might be the only Georgia post I do - 95% of my readers are in Evanston IL and I’m really trying to spin this thing down 😂
“Enquiring Minds Want to Know!” Tom, maybe your platform can be loaned out in this case. The irreparable harm Horton caused in our small district will send ripples for decades. I’d like to know about his other shenanigans.
I would also like to remind Evanstonians that we see a repeat pattern of sycophantic Board members rubber stamping Horton and any and all of his plans. Yet the biggest rubber-stamper is still the head of the organization that must undo the very damage it had done. It is my opinion that Sergio “Cheerleader Co-Captain” Hernandez needs to resign from the Board of Education or at the extremely very least, step down from a leadership position. It’s unconscionable he would remain to pick up the pieces he himself helped to break. It’s time for a clean break from the past. (Mya should go, too. I don’t see what benefit she brings to the table, but this is about Sergio. ). If you are like minded, please sign this petition.
Anyone involved in the decision to hire Horton should resign from the School Board or any other appointed position they might now have in our city government. This includes Candance Chow, who was on the School Board at the time Horton was hired. Now, in a very controversial vote, she is on the Budget subcommittee. She lost to Tom Suffredin when she tried to run for City Council. I'm really grateful the majority of voters saw through her and voted for Tom.
They are real awards, but many are awards given for going to an expensive conference or being engaged with training for money. I also found in DeKalb that some of our communications awards come with hefty submission fees. This is more a testament of how industries do these things in the day and age than the people involved. The hype is a different thing.
Someone doesn't just start grifting overnight. There's an art, a skill set, to this behavior. Before Horton came to District 65 he was "Chief of Schools" for Jefferson County in Kentucky. The major city in Jefferson County, KY is Louisville. I wonder if there will also be a forensic review in Jefferson County or is it too late. The Horton indictment even made it to the New York Times:
It took two years of investigative work by the Department of Eduction and the Federal Prosecutor before the Horton indictment last week. This will be a long process for DeKalb County and possibly even Jefferson County if there are decisions to pursue this work.
Based on what is said in this article I would suspect there is a big additional story in this on the zombie-like control that it appear that the GSBA somehow has over much of the Dekalb school board. How could the Dekalb board members be under such control by the GSBA? Scary stuff! Clearly board members anywhere and everywhere need to be ordinary parent folks, not education-CONSULTANTS with ties to GSBA, etc! Too much ‘buddy system’ in Dekalb as well as evanston!!! Down with the education-industrial complex!!! (Very similar cronyism parallels to military-industrial complex!).
I was watching from Evanston, quite incredulous as the Dekalb board welcomed Horton in as a new school district savior even while there was SO much bad press written in Evanston about his time in Evanston, ashes still smoldering , along with printed comments from prior years suggesting all the red flags that should have been addressed before he was foolishly hired in evanston. Greater fool theory fully demonstrated in the Dekalb Horton hire. Amazing stuff!
Horton is to superintendent-ing as Jussie Smollet is to acting.
What an awesome OpEd.
Really hoping this charlatan gets some extreme accountability. It will make my day if/when he’s convicted and sentenced. What an a**hole. Have fun, Devon - you get what you deserve, prick!
Tracy, I’ve been desperate to hear from the Georgia people!! Thank you for your bravery in speaking up!! This Gianno Caldwell part of the story is too much. I can’t even wrap my mind around it.
Dr. Horton and the board literally had someone arrested here for their political opinions and fought on-stop with anyone they deemed MAGA, even if they were just like “please open the schools” during COVID. For him to turn and hire Gianno to lecture his teachers shows a real hypocrisy. Maybe he never actually believed all the stuff he said and just wanted power?
Nothing wrong with him being buds with Gianno, but it’s the hiring that is the problem. Public officials shouldn’t hire their friends!
So I did not put it in the story because I could not officially source it, but a school board member told me verbally that Caldwell is his former student. So take that for what it is worth.
I share with Tom the sentiment that a “conflict of interest” is a conflict of interest. But I will give you my take on appropriateness. I bought the book before I wrote the piece. I think there is a case for having him as a speaker to high school administrators in the middle of the year to talk about violence and his ideas on how schools can help, even though he is not an educator. He would still not be my choice, but there is a case. This was the new teacher event- K-12, where the intent is to get folks excited and motivated- and focused on academics. Last year, our MAP scores and ELA Milestones scores tanked. The number one thing I heard verbally is that the talk was depressing and it made a new teacher doubt if this was the district for her. It also backs up my overall assessment of Dr. Horton which I allude to at the beginning. He is more comfortable with culture and climate stuff and uses that as smoke and mirrors to hide the academic results and a lack of skills there. I’ll also add someone sent me a photo yesterday of Caldwell and the entire cabinet with his book strewn all over the room. So I assume we also bought books. Based on all available sales data, the book has not sold well. I could not get it at Barnes and Noble and only 3 rural libraries in all of Georgia (we are a big state) carry it. No library bought the electronic version either. Among the stories, the book has a lot of demonstrably false information about Biden and Soros whom he writes about as enemies. It is a political book from a political publisher. I do not think we should be spending tax dollars on political books- that goes for both sides.
The passage about the DeKalb Board getting an award from the GSBA hit home. There was a time when it seemed that there was a press release just about monthly from D65 touting either Horton or the Board getting one award or another when it turned out that there was not much going on here that was award-worthy. It was all a way of saying to the community, "Nothing to see here folks .... " so that the elected Board members and administration officials could duck much deserved scrutiny.
It is very interesting when you go through a school district’s finances, how many awards seem to include really expensive dues and fees!
All part of that powerful, hardworking PR machine! Positive PR is half the battle.
I have an additional comment about the board meeting on Tuesday Morning at 9am. A time when teachers and many stakeholders cannot attend. How is this transparent during a contentious time of deciding which schools to close? Also, what about the Google doc form sent to D65 community asking which school closing plan they would prefer. After the board meeting where the board seemingly conscientiously explained their thoughtful approach to the difficult issue, a form is sent that essentially implies it’s now a matter of how many folks respond, like a beauty contest? They just blew the tiny thread of good will they had.
I read a comment in the Decaturish from someone who described the Horton issue as a typical Illinois problem. My family home is in Decatur. I encourage residents to honestly look at what the board is doing now and historically. That there have been school issues historically is clear. What are board members doing with their cards? Why are they not aggressively moving forward on terminating Horton?
Absolutely. I also hate the phrase “It’s just DeKalb DeKalbing.” We should never stop expecting the right things from our public officials.
Thank you to Tracy for this article. Over the last few years since Horton took the job in Georgia I wondered how it was going. It looks like a continuation of the grifting that happened here along with a school board that rubber stamped EVERYTHING he did. It’s been horrible. Evanston has also relied on a culture of “being nice” and it has harmed D65 tremendously.
He's like the aliens in Independence Day. Once he's drained a district dry or ahead of his BS belt found out he finds a new mark, er, district to "save."
I always think of the Simpsons Monorail episode!
This great Simpson’s episode was a tribute to the classic musical “The Music Man” about roaming, slick professional big-time grifters preying on small-town rubes, not one by one, but going for the whole town of rubes at once in a giant swindle scheme, and then moving on to next town to repeat.
After Tom’s initial coverage, which was not under wraps (on top of what was uncovered when Horton was hired in Evanston) I was quite incredulous how the DeKalb board and its parents could hire him and act like he was a real peach! The greater fool theory plays out!
The two time hiring of Horton as Supt. Is a huge case-study of the merits of promoting within, and then simply budgeting some former supts as consultants for training. Go with who ya know!
The ring came off my pudding can.
To my great shame I've never watched the Simpsons. But I LOVE Futurama and Disenchantment.
You gotta at least watch the monorail episode, it was written by a young Conan O’Brien!
I am a current DCSD parent and my mouth was agape reading this whole thing. I am appalled.
I just left a community school board meeting and they blamed the decline in enrollment on the declining birth rate. Excuse me? Declining enrollment is tied to the inadequate management of the school system. Full stop. Invest more time and money on what's best for the students and staff and less time and money on making them feel good about themselves.
We’ve heard that excuse here!
The corruption is thick and greasy. Your report merits all the consideration. Well done 👏🏽.
Well done! I have even more alarming information that’s developing quicker than I can keep up with. I’ve filed four ORR’s and my attorney is about to make things even more messy for Horton et al.
Tom I’d love to write something about this as well as Tracy and I have been doing things quietly (or not so quietly at times) since 2023. The media contacted me in 2023 to ask my opinion since we couldn’t find a digital footprint of him anywhere. Guess who was on my phone the day after the indictment dropped….
Don’t take this personally but this might be the only Georgia post I do - 95% of my readers are in Evanston IL and I’m really trying to spin this thing down 😂
Deal, but maybe find someone who can find a target notice 😂
Trust me WE GET IT as it pertains to this being a second unpaid full time job.
“Enquiring Minds Want to Know!” Tom, maybe your platform can be loaned out in this case. The irreparable harm Horton caused in our small district will send ripples for decades. I’d like to know about his other shenanigans.
I would also like to remind Evanstonians that we see a repeat pattern of sycophantic Board members rubber stamping Horton and any and all of his plans. Yet the biggest rubber-stamper is still the head of the organization that must undo the very damage it had done. It is my opinion that Sergio “Cheerleader Co-Captain” Hernandez needs to resign from the Board of Education or at the extremely very least, step down from a leadership position. It’s unconscionable he would remain to pick up the pieces he himself helped to break. It’s time for a clean break from the past. (Mya should go, too. I don’t see what benefit she brings to the table, but this is about Sergio. ). If you are like minded, please sign this petition.
https://c.org/rnKPh4tgSN
Anyone involved in the decision to hire Horton should resign from the School Board or any other appointed position they might now have in our city government. This includes Candance Chow, who was on the School Board at the time Horton was hired. Now, in a very controversial vote, she is on the Budget subcommittee. She lost to Tom Suffredin when she tried to run for City Council. I'm really grateful the majority of voters saw through her and voted for Tom.
Candace’s appointment to the City’s Finance and Budget committees is VERY TROUBLING after she was part of the board that rubber stamped Horton.
Are Horton’s resume and awards legitimate or is he another George Santos?
They are real awards, but many are awards given for going to an expensive conference or being engaged with training for money. I also found in DeKalb that some of our communications awards come with hefty submission fees. This is more a testament of how industries do these things in the day and age than the people involved. The hype is a different thing.
The worst part is that I think they’re all real!
Someone doesn't just start grifting overnight. There's an art, a skill set, to this behavior. Before Horton came to District 65 he was "Chief of Schools" for Jefferson County in Kentucky. The major city in Jefferson County, KY is Louisville. I wonder if there will also be a forensic review in Jefferson County or is it too late. The Horton indictment even made it to the New York Times:
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/10/10/us/georgia-school-superintendent-indictment-illinois.htm
It took two years of investigative work by the Department of Eduction and the Federal Prosecutor before the Horton indictment last week. This will be a long process for DeKalb County and possibly even Jefferson County if there are decisions to pursue this work.
I suspect there is a huge potentials
Based on what is said in this article I would suspect there is a big additional story in this on the zombie-like control that it appear that the GSBA somehow has over much of the Dekalb school board. How could the Dekalb board members be under such control by the GSBA? Scary stuff! Clearly board members anywhere and everywhere need to be ordinary parent folks, not education-CONSULTANTS with ties to GSBA, etc! Too much ‘buddy system’ in Dekalb as well as evanston!!! Down with the education-industrial complex!!! (Very similar cronyism parallels to military-industrial complex!).
I was watching from Evanston, quite incredulous as the Dekalb board welcomed Horton in as a new school district savior even while there was SO much bad press written in Evanston about his time in Evanston, ashes still smoldering , along with printed comments from prior years suggesting all the red flags that should have been addressed before he was foolishly hired in evanston. Greater fool theory fully demonstrated in the Dekalb Horton hire. Amazing stuff!
Horton is to superintendent-ing as Jussie Smollet is to acting.
What an awesome OpEd.
Really hoping this charlatan gets some extreme accountability. It will make my day if/when he’s convicted and sentenced. What an a**hole. Have fun, Devon - you get what you deserve, prick!