ST. LOUIS – It’s now well known the high salaries offered this year by St. Louis Public Schools to out-of-towners.
Phoenix Jackson from Texas is the most well-known example; she was offered $200,000 a year in March 2024 to be the SLPS communications director.
Jackson left after the school board discovered its superintendent at the time—Dr. Keisha Scarlett—was hiring many out-of-towners at higher rates than the district had ever seen.
No salary reportedly exceeded $170,000 a year under Scarlett’s predecessor, Dr. Kelvin Adams.
Yet when FOX 2 requested and received job offer letters under Missouri’s Sunshine Law in August, we found 8 of the 11 administrators were offered salaries exceeding $170,000. It added up to more than $2 million.
That was just the beginning of FOX 2’s digging, after a whistleblower told us in August that the board first discovered irregularities with high salaries after the former superintendent tried pushing raises through almost immediately after the hires.
On Aug. 23, FOX 2 requested HR transaction reports that we were told would reveal the pay raise amounts and dates. After almost a full month, the district said HR details were private, so on Sept. 20, we simplified the request, giving 11 names in which we needed salary and raise figures. October went by with no response to our checking in. On Nov. 8, FOX 2 wrote the district, “I’m wondering if it’s been forgotten.”
“Unfortunately, we see quite a few, especially in the St. Louis area, that just decide that they know better than us,” attorney Elad Gross said. Gross is one of a handful of attorneys in Missouri who handle open records cases.
“What they’ll do is string you along for a long time, give you one response and another one that doesn’t make sense in the hopes you’ll just drop it or it’s not newsworthy anymore.”
This week, St. Louis Public Schools finally indicated they might give FOX 2 the records if we paid $52.88.
“The cost calculation includes a reasonable fee for the time necessary to search for and copy public records, which is one hour for this request,” the district said.
“In the situation that you’re describing here—$50—I’d like to know who’s getting paid,” Gross said. “When I worked for the state, I didn’t get paid that much per hour, so they’re supposed to charge you for the least expensive person to complete that task; but also, a lot of this is electronic now.”
Our source, who originally told us to make this request, told FOX 2 it would be silly to pay anything for the information on raises we’ve requested because those figures are now in a special audit report being delivered to the school board and expected to be released to the public any day now. FOX 2 will bring it to you when it is released.
Gross said government entities have three days under the law to give some type of response. If you think you’re being denied records unlawfully, you can file a complaint with the Missouri Attorney General’s Office.