During her 14-month tenure, former St. Louis Public Schools Superintendent Keisha Scarlett racked up more than $140,000 in credit card charges on travel, florists, Bath & Body Works, DoorDash, Uber Eats and other expenses, records obtained by St. Louis Public Radio show.
The same records show another nearly $70,000 worth of charges were made on the office of the superintendent’s card during the same time.
Neither St. Louis Public Schools officials nor Keisha Scarlett immediately responded to requests for comment.
The newly obtained records follow an audit released Tuesday revealing Scarlett misused district funds and violated hiring protocols leading to her termination.
The 55-page report released by SLPS states Scarlett violated several district policies around expenditures, hiring protocols and authorizing unapproved administrative pay.
“It appears that the Superintendent directed the implementation of a new salary structure without Board approval which also included additional salary increases for cabinet members in excess of the amounts set forth in the compensation study,” the report states. “Additionally, several promotions and position changes were implemented but not approved by the Board.”
The report also lists about $34,000 of “questionable” credit card transactions violating district policy.
The report points out there were issues with the district’s recordkeeping related to expenses, stating there were no methods to track who made certain transactions and, in many instances, receipts were not retained or submitted to accounting for retention.
Credit card statements from just two of the four credit cards highlighted in the audit obtained by STLPR show the charges stem from food, transportation, flower arrangements, Amazon purchases and other spending at stores like Bath & Body Works. The records did not include itemized receipts or justifications for purchases.
Monthly credit card statements show that in the majority of months she was employed, at least $10,000 was charged to Scarlett’s personal school district card. Her highest monthly total was $18,483 in October 2023.
The credit card statements from Scarlett’s 14-month tenure show:
$1,109.08 was spent on 10 transactions at Bath & Body Works. Nine of the charges were made on Scarlett’s district card at a location in Richmond Heights, totaling $775.02. A single charge was made online using the office’s card for $334.06.
On both Scarlett’s district card and the card for the office of the superintendent, SLPS employees spent a total of $4,452 on DoorDash, the food delivery service, and $656 on Uber Eats orders.
Roughly $2,000 was spent on 16 orders from Walter Knoll Florist on both cards. The charges were split between $550 on Scarlett’s personal card and $1,471.38 on the office card.
Between the two cards, more than $6,876 worth of purchases were made on Amazon.
$125 was spent on Scarlett’s card at Massage Envy.
Other charges on the card included hotel stays, airline flights and car washes.
According to the audit, Scarlett used district-provided credit cards to pay for unauthorized travel and offered high-paying salaries not approved by the school board to candidates she had relationships with during her time as a Seattle Public Schools administrator.
Correction: An early version of this story misstated details about where the Bath & Body Works purchases were made. $334.06 was spent on the Bath & Body Works website.
