By Logan C. Ritchie, contributor 

DeKalb County, GA — With thousands of tasks in the works, it’s difficult to track exactly how DeKalb County School District is organizing, prioritizing, and paying for projects – especially when the district has not fully migrated to one software system.   

At the E-SPLOST Advisory Committee meeting on Oct. 26, AECOM tried to explain expenditures, but drawing down numbers from two software systems creates errors in the reporting of DCSD salaries. 

AECOM Program Manager Mel Butler delivered a monthly status report. Due to years-long software incompatibility, the reporting of DCSD salaries is $3.6 million. However, the FY23 Requested Budget of salaries and benefits by department is $245 million.

FY23 Requested Budget of salaries and benefits by department

Superintendent’s office: $18.8 million. 

Executive office: $624,000

Regional Superintendent: $3.9 million

DCEIP: $6.5 million

Continuous Improvement: $4.7 million

Curriculum and Instruction: $63.2 million

Facilities and Operations: $72.1 million

Finance: $8.4 million

Human Resources: $20.8 million

IT: $19.9 million

Equity and Student Empowerment: $26.3

Source: DeKalb County Schools

DCSD is in the process of moving from Costpoint to Munis by Tyler Technologies. In 2016, DCSD planned to convert to Munis. It has taken years – and more than $12 million, according to the AJC – to transition the district’s accounting to a cloud-based system.   

“We were told that this is a carryover from the conversion from Costpoint to Munis. That’s been a few years,” Butler said. 

He added, “It may be that [DeKalb County School District] finance has to complete the Munis implementation to be able to fix it.” 

Committee member Kevin Alexander, who noted the issue at the September committee meeting, said the district is not showing a sense of urgency. 

“Obviously, this number hasn’t changed in eons. So, the question is: One, why are we still recording it as a number?” Alexander said. “Since we know it’s wrong, and it’s affecting all the other numbers, we’re not doing ourselves a good service. … We are not showing a sense of urgency. That also goes to that conversation that the superintendent asked about trust. This is a trust issue.”  

Interim Superintendent Dr. Vasanne Tinsley said she is reaching out to the finance department to address the issue. 

If the issue is caused by the “lack of conversion to Munis, then we would not be able to straighten that out until we get that fully executed. But if it is something that can be addressed in the time being. We’ll make sure that we get that looked at for everybody,” Tinsley said.  

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