Superintendent spends $12 million to hire administrators, despite DeKalb County needing 400 teachers

DEKALB COUNTY, Ga. — Students all over metro Atlanta will be back in classrooms over the next couple of weeks. But DeKalb County is still trying to recruit 400 teachers.

The new superintendent just announced $12 million in spending during his first month on the job.

Channel 2′s Tyisha Fernandes was in DeKalb County Monday, where she learned this money is not meant to get teachers hired.

The $12 million is to hire new administrators who will serve as support staff.

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That’s what the superintendent believes the district needs after assessing it for a few weeks.

However, he said he is investing in a teacher residency program so that these teacher shortages don’t keep popping up.

Horton faced a lot of criticism when the school board first hired him a couple of months ago, ,ostly questioning his ability to lead a district as large as Dekalb County

Now, he’s facing even more criticism from teachers for spending $12 million on adding 70 new administrative positions but not one dime spent on teacher recruitment when the county is short 400 teachers.

Deborah Jones, the President of the Dekalb Educators Association, believes Horton does not know the district.

“Dr. Horton doesn’t know this district and that was one of my concerns,” she said.

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Dr. Horton did not sit down and do an interview with Channel 2 Action News, but he did send a statement that reads:

“This reorganization is a direct response to feedback from school leaders and draws from research-based best practices…”

Only one school board member, Dr. Joyce Morley, disagrees with Horton’s plan.

She said it sounds too much like a previous plan that failed.

Deborah Jones agrees.

“We don’t have enough teachers. We don’t have enough bus drivers. We don’t have enough custodial staff,” Jones said. “He might have brought this reorganization with him - but the Board - they’re the ones who said it’s ok. So the citizens - when they start thinking of voting for people to be on the board, they’ve got to look a little bit deeper”

Horton also said that even though he said he wouldn’t spend money like this in his first 45 days, the research said differently, and he had to make some critical decisions.

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