Dr. Horton Spent Over $12,000 of District 65 Funds Moving to Georgia

Former D65 Superintendent expensed auto repairs, gas, food, and a resort hotel on the District Mastercard, before and after his last day.

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In order to write the story on District 65 spending over $130k on food, I had to total up the amount from both the monthly list of bills and the District’s purchasing card records. This card was a big topic a year or so ago after I obtained a copy of the card records for May 2022;

• Dr. Horton made an improper donation to the IL Superintendent PAC using the card

• Dr. Horton also used it for Lyft Luxe Rides, a Steak Dinner in Los Angeles, and a Hotel stay where he received an award

After this round of stories, the District began including P-Card statements in the meeting agendas, a good move for transparency (but also potentially required by law).

As I was going through the 2023 P-Card bills, the August statement stood out to me. It included some interesting expenses labeled as “Meeting Expense” including a $3,000 stay at a resort in Atlanta, rental cars, and over $3,000 worth of automotive repairs.

I submitted a FOIA for the bill, and you can read my request here. I received a reply today, you can view in full at this link.

The records show that after he left District 65 on June 30, 2023, Dr. Horton continued to use the District’s Mastercard for thousands of dollars of expenses in Georgia, including;

• $50.65 on gas in Shepherdsville, Kentucky - on his way to Georgia on 6/27.

• $256.42 at a Longhorn Steakhouse in Tucker, Georgia on 6/29

• $505.95 at a Walgreens in Tucker, Georgia on 6/30¹

• $618.00 at a Target in Tucker Georgia on 7/2

• $824.00 at a Target in Tucker, Georgia on 7/3

• $68.45 at a Chevron in Stone Mountain, Georgia on 7/2

• $103.84 at a Home Depot in Tucker, Georgia on 7/3

• $1,258.14 on Enterprise Rental Car on 7/3

• $3,093.67 for a hotel stay at the Atlanta Evergreen in Stone Mountain, on 7/2 - 7/4.

I bet the fireworks show on 7/4 was really good! This is quite a nice hotel

The automotive expenses he charged to the taxpayer include:

• $1,700.00 at Car Care Chicago on 6/21

• $2,900.00 at Car Care Chicago on 6/27

• $2,766.70 at Zeigler Automotive in Lincolnwood on 6/22

• $374.00 at Just Tires in Skokie on 6/22

(Update 8/25: The original story was missing one of the Car Care Bills and included a different bill to Gerber Automotive, which was not on Dr. Horton’s card)

There is a possibility these charges may be for District business, however District 65 does not maintain a fleet of vehicles - they lease from the City of Evanston.

You can view a sample raw statement or view the full one at this link (see page 4).

District 65 does seem to have caught the issue and was able to reclaim the funds quickly, and in fact, included copies of the money order and deposit slip for $12,634.94 deposited on July 19, 2023, presumably paid back by Dr. Horton.² The District included the following note in the FOIA reply, which I have included below in full.

Enclosed are records that are responsive to your request. Please note in instances when no receipt is available a space holder is used to indicate the expense. Additionally, several expenses were previously identified as erroneous and immediate repayment to the district was requested and received in full. Included are records of proof of repayment of any expenses that were not the responsibility of the district.

It is our belief that the expenses in question were inadvertently mislabeled at the time on the district report. It should have been noted that these were erroneous expenses reimbursed to the district. The current financial services team is committed to increased transparency and ensuring that the necessary fiscal management and accountability systems are in place. This includes strengthened processes around p-card use and reporting measures. These will be detailed in a report to the School Board in September.

I do think it’s commendable that the District caught these charges quickly. However, I do think it’s a problem that the purchasing card isn’t cut off immediately upon employee termination - this is like Corporate Best Practices 101. But even if they cut it off on 6/30, he was already out there spending money on auto repair and dinners.

I think it’s fair to say that if the Board doesn’t demand an audit every one of Dr. Horton’s P-Card Expenses going back to 2020, it is maladministration.³ I FOIA’ed only two months of P-Card bills and found so much inappropriate stuff. How many other bills have extensive Walgreens charges, personal auto repair, political donations, hotel stays, and more? They need to go back to the day he received that card and immediately demand money back that belongs to the kids, even if it involves litigation. We need to draw the line somewhere. This is nuts!

1. $500 at Walgreens?

2. I don’t know exactly what charges compose that $12,634.94. If you can do the math and figure it out, I’d love to hear from you.

3. Recall, this was the same school board who gave him an award for his service in an empty field at the site of the Foster School only 1 months before!