The Missouri State Auditor’s office began an audit of St. Louis Public Schools on Aug. 13, and last week, district officials said they submitted the majority of documents requested by the office.
Requests included major contracts including food service, bonds, construction, major software and curriculum, district expenditures, closed and open meeting minutes, central office receipts and bank statements. Acting Superintendent Millicent Borishade said during a school board meeting last week that the district has submitted most of them to the state.
The state also requested a list of credit cards and credit card limits, as well as those authorized, she said. District Chief Financial Officer Angie Banks said it’s taking time to submit all the documents. School officials said they planned to have everything submitted by last Friday.
“We’re talking about actual receipts, going back to years,” Banks said. “Receipts are scanned, and it is just a lot of data. It’s just a lot of work on people trying to gather all this information.”
According to school district officials, the state auditor’s office also asked for employment contracts for any other administrative personnel, including assistant and deputy superintendents, COOs and CFOs.
School officials said there weren’t any contracts to submit for those positions, however. They did send the state auditor copies of offer letters for those positions, Borishade said.
“That was uploaded to the state audit portal and submitted, and there was a request for superintendent employment contracts for the acting and prior superintendents, along with any statements of benefits,” Borishade said. “Those documents were submitted, noting that there was not a contract for the acting superintendent.”
There was also a request for access to recordings of open minutes of school board meetings going back to 2022.
SLPS has been under fire in recent months as transportation woes plagued the district and a $17 million surplus the district had in its general operating budget at the start of Superintendent Keisha Scarlett’s term last year plunged into a projected $35 million deficit.
After Scarlett was placed on administrative leave in late July, school board members voted 6-0 to fire her following a separate third-party investigation into her hiring practices. Scarlett shared plans last week to contest the board’s decision, and she’ll remain on paid administrative leave until she has a hearing before the school board, which is expected to take place sometime in October.
