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ST. LOUIS — The board president of St. Louis Public Schools says she was unaware of any wrongdoing by ex-Superintendent Keisha Scarlett until soon before Scarlett’s ouster.

“We did not see it coming,” Antionette “Toni” Cousins said in July after the board placed Scarlett on disciplinary leave, which led to termination for her spending habits.

But credit card statements and interviews paint a picture of tight-knit friendships and improper perks that also benefited Cousins and other board members after Scarlett’s arrival.

On Aug. 4, 2023, the school district threw a welcoming party for Scarlett and a back-to-school rally for staff at the Enterprise Center. The celebrity guest was William Stanford Davis, a St. Louis native and TV personality from “Abbott Elementary.” Scarlett danced and embraced Cousins on stage.

In the days before and after the event, the district spent $1,777 in tax dollars on one or more rooms at the Four Seasons Hotel St. Louis. Another $1,500 was spent on limousines. The night of the pep rally, $1,281 was charged at 801 Chophouse in Clayton on the card assigned to the school board’s assistant Shameika Henry, who sources say wasn’t at the dinner.

The charges continued throughout the 2023-2024 school year, totaling $1.6 million across 21 credit cards issued by SLPS, much of it on travel, food and entertainment for administrators and board members.

During board meetings and TV news interviews, Cousins has said Scarlett is to blame for inappropriate charges. But a board-approved audit only reviewed $260,500 charged to four credit cards linked to Scarlett and her office.

The $1.3 million that was not audited came from cards belonging to five current and former staff members, seven SLPS departments and five labeled “travel.” Those cards included hundreds of thousands spent for hotel rooms, restaurant deliveries, online shopping, bar tabs and sporting venues.

The $53,567 in charges on school board assistant Henry’s card include expenses for Cousins’ trips to conferences in Branson, Boston, Kansas City, Washington, San Diego, Atlanta and Dallas. Among charges recorded on those trips were $185 in airline upgrades and convenience fees; meals above the $50 per diem; hotel rooms above $350 and flights above $500 — all violations of SLPS policy. Henry also charged airline upgrades or convenience fees for herself and her son; board secretary Donna Jones; and board members Sadie Weiss and Tracy Hykes, as well as Hykes’ wife.

Weiss resigned earlier this month, citing the board’s failure to investigate the additional credit cards. Henry has been promoted to director of planning and real estate for SLPS.

In a recent interview with KSDK (Channel 5), Cousins said the conferences were required by the Missouri School Boards’ Association, an advocacy group that does not hold any legal authority over elected officials. The only required training for Missouri school board members is 18.5 hours in their first year in office and one hour in each subsequent year. The training is provided in-state.

An additional $3,000 in Amazon orders on Henry’s credit card paid for supplies for the seven-member board, Cousins said in the interview.

Cousins also said she doesn’t consider her Southwest Airlines early-bird check-in or boarding upgrades to be policy violations, despite the investigative audit citing Scarlett for the same Southwest fees.

The SLPS , approved in 2017, states airline upgrades and “convenience fees such as priority check-in or preferred seat assignment” are not allowable expenses.

At a January school board meeting, Cousins scoffed at the fees, saying, “You wanna hit me for a $40 upcharge on Southwest airline? Come on, y’all.”

One teacher in south St. Louis said she was angered by Cousins’ statement.

“In my school we have been talking about what we could do with $40 that she thinks is no big deal,” the teacher said. “We only get 500 copies a month and when you teach 300 students and don’t have basics so you need to make copies, it hurts.”

Under previous superintendents, SLPS staff and board members had to produce receipts to get reimbursed for approved expenses. It is unclear exactly how and why the district shifted toward credit cards, but the monthly statements were not reviewed by the school board. The district also does not have itemized expense reports for the charges, according to custodian of records Mona Hamid.

“The checks and balances that were in the district systemically were obliterated,” said Joyce Roberts, who served on the SLPS board from 2018 to 2022, including the last year as president.

Cousins has repeatedly declined to answer questions from the Post-Dispatch about her oversight of the district in the last two years as board president. Since the revelations about unapproved spending, the school board will include credit card statements on their meeting agendas.

‘Forward-thinking visionary’

The school district is under audit by the state while struggling with an emergency transportation plan, a teacher shortage, dozens of underutilized schools and a projected operating deficit of $35 million. One member of the State Board of Education wants to see SLPS lose its full accreditation, and legislators have hinted at pursuing another state takeover. Five years ago, oversight of SLPS returned to a locally elected board after 12 years under state control.

“It’s difficult to watch. I’m heartbroken by it but I’m driven and committed to getting rid of that board,” Roberts said.

Former school board members and staff say the lax oversight of Scarlett was enabled by the finance division and the board led by Cousins, who says she spends 40 to 50 hours a week in her volunteer role for SLPS.

“She’s ruling it all. She’s in governance and she’s over in operations,” Roberts said. “There were times when the line staff wanted to bring stuff to her attention and she wouldn’t have it. They got fired.”

In previous interviews, Cousins has said her passion for community service comes from growing up in the Walnut Park neighborhood, where her mother, Pamela Boyd, serves as an alderman of the 13th ward. Cousins, who graduated from Affton High School in 1990, now lives in the Gate District south of downtown with her husband, St. Louis police Lt. Col. Ryan Cousins, and a daughter who is a junior at Affton.

While Mayor Tishaura O. Jones has criticized the SLPS board, Cousins has supporters in City Hall. Last March, the St. Louis Board of Aldermen passed a resolution sponsored by Boyd to recognize Cousins “for her significant contributions to the betterment of our city and its residents.”

The 10-paragraph resolution calls Cousins “a forward-thinking visionary who works tirelessly to develop new concepts while fulfilling her calling to serve the residents of the St. Louis region,” citing her work with Riverview West Florissant Development Corporation where she developed more than 100 housing units, an afterschool program in the Baden neighborhood, the alternative school AMIKids and the Missouri Housing Development Commission. The resolution does not mention SLPS.

Cousins has been a regular presence in the school district’s headquarters in a way that her predecessors on the board had not when longtime Superintendent Kelvin Adams was in charge. Early on, district staff noted the closeness of Cousins to the new superintendent and Millicent Borishade, who came from Seattle with Scarlett and replaced her as interim superintendent.

A TikTok video posted in February 2024 shows Cousins, Scarlett, Borishade and at least one other SLPS staffer in Chicago at a birthday party for Borishade’s daughter.

In photos provided to the Post-Dispatch, Borishade is seen sitting next to Boyd — the alderwoman and Cousins’ mother — at a birthday party for Cousins’ daughter. In another, Cousins and Scarlett are pictured at the Galleria mall in Richmond Heights, where Scarlett charged $735 at the Bath and Body Works to her SLPS credit card over seven visits. A third photo shows Cousins, Scarlett and Borishade eating breakfast in a restaurant booth.

Combatting ‘false narratives’

Cousins is vying for reelection in April and wants to combat “false narratives” about SLPS, she said at a school board candidate forum in January. There are 12 candidates in total running for three open seats.

SLPS is under attack by school choice privatizers, the media and the Project 2025 conservative manifesto, she said.

“There are so many great things and improvements that are being done,” Cousins said. “And there are things that need to be worked on but how about we work together and start doing that. Our children are struggling with all the negative things that we continue to demonstrate. And right now there is an attack on public education.”

Among other accomplishments in SLPS, the dance team ADIOS from Central Visual and Performing Arts High School won the top prize at the St. Louis Teen Talent Competition this month. Also, Metro is the only high school in the state to be named a National Blue Ribbon school for 2024. And storied high schools notch milestone anniversaries in 2025: Sumner with 150 years and Roosevelt with 100.

But contrary to Cousins’ public claims, enrollment is not growing and reading scores have not improved. There are fewer than 18,000 students in preschool through 12th grade, a loss of 2% since last year. On state tests last spring, 21% of students scored proficient in English, down slightly from the year before. In overall performance, SLPS scores in the provisionally accredited category by the state, which has delayed the downgrading of school districts to 2027.

And as threats mount from state legislators, education officials and charter school backers, some SLPS supporters worry that Cousins’ board has not done enough to help the district survive.

“There are two areas that a board of education has to monitor closely in order for the school system to be a success, the academics and the financials, and they just don’t do it,” said David Jackson, a former SLPS board member and current candidate.

“We just have to hang on until election time and pray to God that people have paid attention,” he said.