DEKALB COUNTY, Ga. — Community members are expressing their hesitation about the candidate for the position of superintendent for the DeKalb County School District. Dr.
Devon Horton was announced as the sole finalist earlier this month.
J.D. Max, who has three children who have attended or are attending DeKalb County schools says he has his doubts about the district's process for choosing Horton and the methods used to determine he would be the sole finalist for the job.
"Some of the decisions that we've seen the last few years," Max explained. "And looks like we're coming up on one right now are questionable at best."
RELATED: DeKalb County Board of Education announces 3 chances to meet the sole finalist for superintendent
Horton has served as the superintendent of the Evanston/Skokie School District 65 since 2020. The DeKalb County School District is 14 times bigger than his previous district.
The school district he would be coming from has a student body of about 6,500 -- compare that to DeKalb's roughly 93,000 students in the district.
Max says he had doubts Horton will be able to manage the needs of the students, staff, and board of a district this size.
"I mean, we're having to scrounge, you know, look on the Internet, talk to folks and see what information we can find," Max said about Horton's candidacy.
The concerns are shared by Verdailia Turner, the President of the Georgia Federation of Teachers. She said that the district should have brought more than one candidate for families to consider to show more transparency in the process.
"Where in the world did this candidate come from and how in the world that the board would end up with this man as the sole finalist?" Turner said.
Turner shared a letter she sent to the DeKalb County School Board on behalf of the Georgia Federation of Teachers. In the letter, she asks the board to reconsider Horton as a candidate.
"We don't think that this is the candidate, the sole candidate that we should be strapped with," it reads.
The district is hosting three town hall meetings for employees and community members to meet and hear from Horton. The schedule can be found here.