Photo: Getty Images
Former St. Louis Public Schools (SLPS) superintendent Dr. Keisha Scarlett filed a lawsuit against the district on Monday (April 20), alleging the district violated her contract when it fired her in 2024.
According to St. Louis Public Radio, Scarlett was placed on administrative leave in July 2024 and was formally fired from her position in October 2024 after the school board found she had allegedly awarded high-salaried contracts to cabinet-level administrators without prior approval.
The decision came after the board hired a third-party investigator in response to public complaints that Scarlett had hired friends from Seattle Public Schools, her previous employer.
However, Scarlett argues in the suit that the district terminated her instead “to deflect its own shortcomings on her” after she reported “illegal activity within the district.”
According to the suit, Scarlett brought to the board’s attention that the district had 2,000 outstanding unpaid invoices from vendors following the results of an internal audit released in March 2024. Scarlett’s three-year contract with SLPS began in July 2023.
“The unpaid invoices indicated that Defendant SLPS had failed to pay invoices, in violation of its contracts with vendors,” the suit reads. “As a result of Defendant SLPS’s failure to pay vendor invoices, entry alarms and/or security monitoring systems at one or more schools in the district had lapsed.”
Scarlett reported the audit results to Board President Toni Cousins and Board Vice President Matt Davis on May 1, 2024. She also shared an independent assessment by Wright & Associates, LLC that further identified 1,642 open purchase orders and a vendor payables backlog of $4,803,859.
“My leadership decisions were always made to benefit our students and community,” Scarlett said in a statement following her termination. “When I arrived, the administration was in crisis with significant operational problems, student service deficiencies, and staff compensation disparities. After several external studies and audits, I focused on redistributing resources to support our mission more equitably. I communicated regularly with the Board about these needed changes.”
The suit also alleges that the board denied Scarlett’s due process rights before formally voting to terminate her employment in October 2024.
Sherry Culves, Scarlett’s lawyer, told St. Louis Public Radio that the board actively barred her from accessing school databases and using district devices to contact SLPS personnel, access that her attorney said would have helped her make her case to the board.
A separate lawsuit by Scarlett alleges that Davis and other board members made false statements about Scarlett to the media during the leave period, which Davis denies.
"The lawsuit filed by Keisha Scarlett is entirely without foundation, and the St. Louis Public Schools Board acted lawfully, transparently and in full compliance with the superintendent’s contract,” Davis said in a statement emailed to St. Louis Public Radio on Tuesday (April 21).
“The defamation claim is baseless as a matter of fact and law, and I will forcefully defend against these ridiculous allegations.”
The Black Information Network is your source for Black News! Get the latest news 24/7 on The Black Information Network. Listen now on the iHeartRadio app or click HERE to tune in live.