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ST. LOUIS — Mayor Tishaura O. Jones sent a letter offering assistance to St. Louis Public Schools leaders after the superintendent was forced out and in the face of a looming bus shortage just three weeks before school starts.

“The problems facing SLPS require dramatically increased collaboration with nonprofits, philanthropic organizations, and other governmental bodies,” Jones wrote Friday after the school board placed Superintendent Keisha Scarlett on a temporary leave of absence while they launch an investigation of her hiring and spending practices.

During Scarlett’s yearlong stint as superintendent, the school district’s general operating budget plunged from a surplus of $17 million to a projected deficit of $35 million. Adding to the pressure, the main school bus contractor terminated its agreement with the district this summer. District leaders cobbled together 19 different vendors but still won’t be able to provide rides to all students.

“The Mayor’s Office stands ready to work with SLPS to address these transportation challenges,” Jones wrote, adding that the school district’s policies on partnerships have “hampered” community engagement.

Jones also called on the district to restart weekly meetings between the superintendent and the mayor’s staff, which ended in July 2023 when Scarlett joined SLPS.

In an interview on Saturday, Toni Cousins, the president of the St. Louis Board of Education, and Matt Davis, the vice president, said they planned to discuss a possible response to the mayor with the rest of the board.

The SLPS board has come under scrutiny for its oversight of the district’s hiring process after approving more than 20 new administrators and consultants that had prior connections to Scarlett. The superintendent was replaced on an interim basis by her deputy Millicent Borishade, one of Scarlett’s first hires and closest friends.

Borishade, who does not have a Missouri superintendent’s certificate, has already been running the daily operations of the school district, the board leaders said.

“The board has voted, and we have confidence she is the person to get it done,” Cousins said.

In the past year, the district paid out at least $1.4 million to consultants in Scarlett’s personal and professional circles, mostly overlapping with her previous employer, Seattle Public Schools.

Under SLPS policy, payouts of less than $50,000 did not require board approval and were granted to Scarlett’s former colleagues for services including “flow analysis,” “cabinet team support” and “researcher of best practices to advise,” according to the district’s financial records.

“We weren’t aware of those,” Davis said, adding that the school board will consider lowering the $50,000 threshold as a check on spending.

The board will also reevaluate its $80,000 contract with Iowa-based executive search firm Ray and Associates, which was awarded in January without a competitive bidding process. Current and former SLPS staff members said several of the new administrators did not go through the typical hiring process, including interviews.

The school board leaders said they are not tasked with micromanaging the superintendent or the human resources department.

“You have to give a level of trust to the people you put in those positions,” Davis said.

Cousins said the board moved quickly to remove Scarlett in a decision that came one week after new communications director Phoenix Jackson made headlines by saying she planned to “float” between her family home in Houston and a condo in St. Louis.

“If we were not being accountable, we would have continued to let these things go on,” Cousins said. “Once we saw the signs, we’re trying to do our best to get it right.”

School staff hope Scarlett’s abrupt departure does not usher in a repeat of the early 2000s, when the district became infamous for cycling through six superintendents in five years.

“Our main focus right now is making sure that we are going to have the schools ready, transportation ready, before and after care ready for these children,” Cousins said. “We’ve got 22 days.”