St. Louis Schools Rated 'Poor': Reserves Draining Toward 2031
Summary
Missouri's State Auditor rated St. Louis Public Schools 'Poor' -- the lowest score the office gives -- after finding a district that built four straight years of savings and then budgeted them away. The audit's own projections show the district's $202.9 million General Fund reserve falling to $135.9 million within two years, crossing the state's 3% 'financially stressed' line by fiscal year 2030 and running out of money mid-school-year by fiscal year 2031. Over the same period, the district paid $3.5 million in employee bonuses a 1955 Attorney General opinion holds unconstitutional, authorized cabinet raises up to $44,039 above its own salary caps, and charged a Top Golf retreat and a Caesar's Palace stay to district credit cards.
The district's fiscal year 2024 budget projected a $17.7 million deficit ($465.8 million in budgeted revenue against $483.5 million in budgeted expenditures⧉), but actual revenue outpaced actual spending that year, growing the fund balance by $20.8 million instead. That cushion didn't repeat: the Board approved an actual $35.4 million deficit budget for fiscal year 2025, and has proposed a further $33.4 million deficit for fiscal year 2026⧉.
District policy sets the Board's own target at keeping the unassigned fund balance above 30% of expenditures. The auditor's office projects that, left unaddressed, the district crosses below that 30% line in fiscal year 2027, below 20% in fiscal year 2028, and at or below 3% -- the threshold Missouri's Department of Elementary and Secondary Education defines as "financially stressed" -- by fiscal year 2030⧉. By fiscal year 2031, the district's own trajectory shows it without sufficient funds to complete a school year.
View data as table
| FY2021 (actual) | 8.2 | Fund balance increased $8.2M |
|---|---|---|
| FY2022 (actual) | 45.2 | Fund balance increased $45.2M |
| FY2023 (actual) | 37 | Fund balance increased $37.0M |
| FY2024 (actual) | 20.8 | Fund balance increased $20.8M -- actual revenue beat a budget that had projected a $17.7M deficit |
| FY2025 (approved budget) | 35.4 | Budgeted DECREASE of $35.4M -- the trend turns negative |
| FY2026 (proposed budget) | 33.4 | Proposed DECREASE of $33.4M |
Money paid for work already done
The audit's sharpest legal finding involves the district's own staff, not vendors. St. Louis Public Schools paid $3,543,750 in attendance incentives, in violation of the Missouri Constitution⧉, to non-union employees and to skilled-trades staff for periods before their union's incentive agreement took effect -- both groups received the payments without a formal agreement made before the work was performed. That makes the payments compensation for service already rendered, which a 1955 Missouri Attorney General opinion holds a government agency is constitutionally barred from granting⧉. It's a fraction of a larger program -- the district paid roughly $26.2 million in attendance incentives to all employee groups over the same two years -- but the unconstitutional share alone, $3.54 million, is real money the district is not supposed to have spent.
The former Superintendent also authorized cabinet salaries above what the Board's own pay schedule allowed, without Board approval and in some cases retroactively. Six cabinet members received salaries exceeding the Board-approved maximum⧉, led by the Deputy Superintendent at $44,039 above the $185,961 ceiling; four other chiefs were each $14,039 over, and an interim chief information officer was $12,478 over. Beyond the cabinet, 22 of 30 randomly sampled employee salaries -- 73% -- didn't match the Board-approved schedule⧉, exceeding it by amounts from $1,446 to $45,189. Separately, the district reimbursed the former Superintendent $36,590 in moving expenses -- $16,590 more than her employment contract's one-time $20,000 allowance -- after Board members approved the extra payment in a closed session.
View data as table
| Deputy Superintendent | 44,039 | $230,000 authorized vs. $185,961 maximum |
|---|---|---|
| Chief Information Officer | 14,039 | $200,000 authorized vs. $185,961 maximum |
| Chief Financial Officer | 14,039 | $200,000 authorized vs. $185,961 maximum |
| Chief Communications Officer | 14,039 | $200,000 authorized vs. $185,961 maximum |
| Chief of Schools | 14,039 | $200,000 authorized vs. $185,961 maximum |
| Interim Chief Information Officer | 12,478 | $168,269 authorized vs. $155,791 maximum |
Credit cards, contracts, and no receipts
The audit's disbursement testing found a district with little control over its own purchasing card use. Of 27 credit card transactions the auditor reviewed, 17 -- 63% of them, totaling $12,436 -- were questionable or unreasonable⧉. The examples read like a spending diary: $3,888 for a Top Golf venue rental and meals for a Deputy Superintendent retreat⧉ attended by 42 employees, and $1,689 for a 4-night stay at Caesar's Palace in Las Vegas⧉ at a nightly rate exceeding the district's own $350 maximum.
There was also $1,282 for an Airbnb rental on the former Superintendent's card⧉ that a subpoena to Airbnb revealed was rented to a different employee entirely, one the district couldn't explain traveling on district business, and $833 for St. Louis Cardinals tickets⧉ with no record of who attended, for the game where the former Superintendent threw the first pitch.
Procurement fared no better. The Board classified three purchases totaling $266,780 as emergencies or sole-source awards that didn't meet the requirements to skip competitive bidding⧉ -- including a $76,980 asphalt-and-retaining-wall repair the district let sit for 146 days after approving it as an "emergency." Separately, the district spent $323,244 across five categories -- including $133,295 on t-shirts -- without the sealed-bid process district policy and state law require⧉. Combined, that's $590,024 in spending that bypassed competitive procurement.
For 14 of the 17 vendors the auditor sampled, the district couldn't produce adequate documentation, quotes, Board approval, or a signed contract⧉ -- the paper trail a public school district is supposed to keep to show taxpayers it got a fair price.
- Poor -- the Missouri State Auditor's rating of St. Louis Public Schools, the lowest of four tiers, covering financial planning, disbursements, procurement, and payroll.
- $202.9 million to $135.9 million -- the district's own projected two-year drop in General Fund reserves, a trajectory the auditor says crosses Missouri's 'financially stressed' threshold by fiscal year 2030 and leaves insufficient funds to finish a school year by fiscal year 2031.
- $3.54 million in attendance incentives the auditor says were paid in violation of the Missouri Constitution -- compensation for work already done, which a 1955 Attorney General opinion prohibits.
- $590,024 in purchases that bypassed the district's required competitive-bid process, on top of a credit card program where 63% of sampled transactions were flagged questionable or unreasonable.
- The district serves 16,542 students with 3,512 employees; enrollment and staffing figures the auditor cites as context for a budget the Board has not brought into structural balance.
Figures for fiscal years 2025 and 2026 are the district's approved and proposed budgets, not final actual results -- the audit itself distinguishes fiscal year 2024's budgeted $17.7 million deficit from that year's actual $20.8 million surplus, a gap this piece preserves rather than collapses. The auditor's sample testing (e.g., the 27 credit card transactions, 30 employee salaries, and 20 disbursements reviewed) used judgmental and random selection; results cannot be projected to the full population of district transactions. This report covers procurement, hiring, and budgetary practices only; a second audit of the district's general operations was still in process as of the report's release⧉, with any further findings to appear separately. Auditor Scott Fitzpatrick said the report "sounds the alarm regarding the district's financial condition"⧉ and that his office's work "continues."
Sources(2) ▾
- Office of the Missouri State Auditor (Scott Fitzpatrick), St. Louis Public Schools -- Procurement, Hiring, and Budgetary Practices (Report No. 2025-045) (2025-08-05) — The Missouri State Auditor's performance audit of St. Louis Public Schools' financial planning, disbursements, procurement, and payroll/personnel practices for the period July 1, 2023-July 31, 2024, requested by St. Louis Mayor Tishaura Jones in August 2024. Primary source for the district's overall 'Poor' rating (p.9), the fiscal year 2024-2026 budgeted deficit spending and long-term fund-balance projections including the DESE 'financially stressed' threshold and fiscal year 2031 insolvency projection (p.7), the fiscal year 2021-2026 net change in fund balance (p.9, Figure 2), the $3,543,750 in unconstitutional attendance incentives and Attorney General opinion (p.25-26), cabinet and employee salary-schedule overages (p.26-27), questionable credit card purchases (p.13-15), superintendent moving-expense reimbursement (p.17), procurement bypasses of the sealed-bid process (p.20-24), and district enrollment/staffing/compensation figures (p.25, p.37-38). auditor.mo.gov · original document
- Office of the Missouri State Auditor (Scott Fitzpatrick), Auditor Fitzpatrick gives the St. Louis Public Schools a "poor" rating in new audit report that scrutinizes the district's budgetary, hiring, and procurement practices (2025-08-05) — The auditor's office's own release accompanying Report 2025-045, published the same day. Source for Auditor Fitzpatrick's on-the-record quote describing the audit's purpose and findings, and confirmation that this report is the first of two planned audits of the district. auditor.mo.gov · original document
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Missouri's State Auditor gave St. Louis Public Schools the lowest rating the office issues. A performance audit released August 5, 2025⧉ rated the district's procurement, hiring, and budgetary practices "Poor," the bottom of a four-tier scale (Excellent, Good, Fair, Poor) reserved for entities with numerous findings requiring immediate management attention. The audit's central finding is arithmetic, not opinion: the district's own General Fund balance, $202.9 million as of June 30, 2024⧉, is projected by the district's own budgeted spending to fall to $135.9 million by June 30, 2026⧉ -- a two-year decline of 33%.