St. Louis Public Schools’ acting Superintendent Millicent Borishade has inherited a long list of urgent issues to address. They include transportation concerns about vendor vans having expired license plates and other safety issues, student enrollment and district hiring practices. The district has been under fire in recent months as concerns about district spending and transportation have risen. Last week, the SLPS school board voted to appoint Borishade as acting superintendent for the rest of the school year after firing Superintendent Keisha Scarlett.
Borishade sat down with STLPR reporter Lacretia Wimbley to discuss these issues in a one-on-one interview at SLPS headquarters.
Lacretia Wimbley: How are you doing right now?
Millicent Borishade: It has really been a challenging time, but I feel fortunate to lead in a district where there are so many caring people. One of the things that I know is that challenges bring about opportunities for growth. And as I continue to say, we either win or we learn, and we've learned a lot.
Wimbley: How are projected enrollment numbers determined?
Borishade: We get that number as far back as the year before, so in April 2024 we would have had our projected numbers that will include students who have tested in our gifted program, that will include students who have said they want to come to St Louis public schools. And then when we start the school year, we look for all of those students who said they were coming, then after a certain number of days, then they are no longer enrolled, and so that becomes the number that we report to (the state Department of Elementary and Secondary Education).
Wimbley: Can you speak to claims that you and/or Keisha Scarlett tend to inflate projections and enrollment numbers?
Borishade: It doesn't benefit us to inflate numbers. Students will register or be a part of the lottery and say they want to be a student. That doesn't necessarily mean that they're going to come, but they are counted in our projection.
Wimbley: There's been a lot of confusion and perhaps a lack of understanding about the district's projected $35 million deficit. How does the district go from having a $17 million surplus a year ago to now having a deficit?
Borishade: There were COVID relief funds that have sunset at this time, and so now we are doing planned deficit spending where we know that we're going to be spending at least 11 million on transportation. We have $32 million that we're spending on competitive salaries, and then we have $6.5 million in new initiatives. And those new initiatives include Literacy for the Lou, our classroom libraries, our school libraries, and summer school took place for six weeks instead of four. We also have Saturday school, which is for our students to ensure that they are getting the support that they need in order to maintain the credits for graduation. All of these new initiatives are done to benefit our students, all of them.
Wimbley: How long do you think it will take for this projected deficit to no longer be an issue?
Borishade: We're projecting to do the planned deficit spending for at least two years.
Wimbley: People have been very critical of you allegedly being close friends with Dr Scarlett, as well as Dr. Scarlett allegedly hiring her friends out of Seattle, unfairly. What can you say about the district's hiring practices? What is allowed and what isn't? And we do understand that there's an ongoing investigation into Scarlett's hiring practices.
Borishade: So I'll say this. It is the expectation that all hiring is aligned to our district policy and our individual job postings in cases where there's an interim that's needed, the interim provides stability during a time of change, and that is to ensure that our day to day practices or our day to day needs or operations run smoothly. So ultimately, our goal is to bring in people who are best suited for the job and making sure that they serve our students.
Wimbley: You guys hit the pavement running in recent months having to put out fires after you were left without your main vendor, Missouri Central School Bus Company. Can you tell me about you guys' vendor vetting process? There have been concerns about some of the vendors having expired license plates, tags, some of the vendors running red lights.
Borishade: Our vendor vetting process is something that I'm still learning about, because that process started prior to me taking this role. With this experience, we have to have a contingency plan at all times, at all times, and we have to start the RFP (request for proposal) process a lot earlier or extend contracts to those who are doing well for us.
Wimbley: For the vendors that did have expired license plates, how did you guys address that?
Borishade: They can no longer drive for us, we're relying on everyone to help us get this right.
