News, Resources, & Studies

Resources & Studies

DeKalb County School District Administrative Cost Analysis FY2019 to FY2026
This cost analysis found DCSD administrative overhead more than doubled (116%) between FY2019 and FY2024, far faster than instruction spending (+23%) or school administration spending (+14%). Between FY2019 and FY2026, administrative overhead continued to increase, landing at +126%.

School level spending at 4 of 5 Lakeside cluster elementary schools, including Henderson Mill Elementary, decreased between FY2019 and FY2024. In fact, Henderson Mill’s school level spending decreased the most (-$48K) among Lakeside elementary schools. Additionally, DCSD allocated increases in overhead for each school, which is driven by the district’s overhead growth, not increases in school-level spending.

The Full Track Record - HPM, DeJong-Richter, and Cooperative Strategies: Every Known School Facility Planning Engagement
This analysis by Oak Grove parent Thomas Brown catalogues the 22 school facility planning engagements with public documentation in which HPM’s VP of Planning Services was involved. The analysis includes an assessment of each outcome. Only one had a positive result.

Source documentation for the analysis can be found here.

What the Task Force Wrought - Austin Chronicle
This piece analyzes how a process similar to SAP fell apart in Austin, TX with many of the same people at HPM, the contractor working on SAP in DeKalb.