Former Saint Louis Public Schools Superintendent Keisha Scarlett is taking her fight with the district to court, claiming she was pushed out after blowing the whistle on a multimillion-dollar backlog of unpaid bills.
Scarlett filed a lawsuit in St. Louis Circuit Court on April 20, 2026, alleging that the school board retaliated against her after she reported roughly $4.8 million in overdue vendor invoices. Her complaint says board members moved to terminate her without following the procedures spelled out in her contract and that district officials cut off her access to records and staff soon after she raised concerns about the mounting payables.
The suit names Saint Louis Public Schools and former Board Vice President Matt Davis as defendants and includes a whistleblower-retaliation claim under Missouri law. Scarlett is seeking lost wages, benefits, and damages for emotional distress and harm to her reputation. According to the filing, a financial review identified nearly 2,000 unpaid invoices and more than 1,600 open purchase orders, together creating about $4.8 million in vendor payables, with some unpaid vendors tied to school security systems. The complaint also alleges that the district confiscated Scarlett’s work phone and computer, restricted her ability to communicate with employees, and canceled her health insurance before any final hearing took place, according to KSDK.
Audits and fallout
Scarlett served as superintendent from July 2023 until October 2024. The board placed her on administrative leave in July 2024 and later voted to terminate her for cause, as reported by KMOX. Internal reviews and a subsequent state audit flagged questionable credit-card spending, unauthorized pay raises, and procurement breakdowns, and warned that the district was on a “path to bankruptcy” without stronger financial controls, according to St. Louis Public Radio. Those findings now form the tense backdrop for Scarlett’s lawsuit and the ongoing scrutiny of how the board manages taxpayer dollars.
What the complaint says
Scarlett’s lawsuit argues that the board did not honor key protections in her employment contract, including requirements for formal notice of concerns and specific hearing procedures before any termination for cause. The complaint also accuses Matt Davis of making false public statements that implied Scarlett had been dishonest. She is asking the court to restore her lost pay and benefits and to award damages for alleged retaliation and damage to her reputation, according to KSDK.
Legal implications
Scarlett’s attorneys are framing the case around Missouri’s whistleblower protections and alleged breaches of her contract as superintendent. If she prevails, the district could be on the hook for back pay, reinstated benefits, or other monetary damages. In an earlier public statement, Scarlett called the district’s investigation a “sham” and said she was denied a fair opportunity to respond to the allegations against her, according to her statement on DocumentCloud.
Why this matters
The lawsuit lands at a time when Saint Louis Public Schools is already wrestling with tight budgets, shrinking enrollment, and stepped-up state oversight, pressures that have fueled talk of school closures and stricter spending rules. In that context, a legal fight centered on vendor-payables transparency and board oversight is more than inside baseball. It has real stakes for families, district staff, and city taxpayers, as reporting from St. Louis Public Radio has detailed.
The complaint, filed April 20 in St. Louis Circuit Court, does not yet have a scheduled hearing date. Court filings and public statements from both sides are likely to set the tone for the district’s next chapter, and we will be watching how it unfolds.
