DeKalb County Superintendent Devon Horton has been “consistently late on payments” to the school district he previously led, records show.
Now leaders in the Evanston-Skokie District 65 in Illinois are threatening legal action if he continues to pay late.
Horton left his contract with District 65, a small district outside of Chicago, to begin work as superintendent of Georgia’s third-largest district over the summer. As a penalty for giving less than 180 days notice before his departure to DeKalb, Horton was required as part of his contract with the Illinois district to pay $25,000 in damages, broken into $700 monthly payments over three years, to District 65.
But Horton made late payments or missed payments in September, October, November, December, January and February, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution confirmed. As a result of the late payments, Horton owed roughly $2,000 in fees, District 65 leaders outlined in a letter to Horton obtained by the AJC. Horton’s base salary in DeKalb is $325,000. The issue was first reported based on open records requests by Tom Hayden, a parent in the Illinois district who publishes a blog called FOIA Gras, which explores various topics in Evanston.
In a March 4 letter to Horton, District 65 school board Chair Sergio Hernandez and Vice Chair Soo La Kim wrote that the board had “significant concerns” about the repayment agreement.
“This letter serves to disabuse you of any assumption that the District accepts your pattern of late payments,” they wrote.
The letter added if Horton is more than two weeks late on a future payment, “the District will likely consider you in default, pursue current and past penalty amounts, and pursue all legal remedies available to it.”
Horton is up to date on payments, he told the AJC through a spokesperson last week. The district did not respond to additional questions. A spokesperson for District 65 confirmed that Horton had no outstanding balance as of March 6.
Hernandez and Kim advised Horton not to make payments through a district employee, which he had done once in January, per FOIA Gras.
Sarita Smith, who previously worked with Horton in District 65 and who was hired in DeKalb last month to serve as the executive director of student assignments, told FOIA Gras that she served once as an intermediary between Horton and District 65, which had no way to accept electronic payments. She stated she had not been involved in any additional payments.
Smith’s position in DeKalb was slated for an annual salary of about $182,000 under Horton’s restructuring plan presented over the summer. The district did not respond to the AJC’s questions about her hiring and her involvement in Horton’s repayment.
