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ST. LOUIS — The St. Louis Board of Education fired their superintendent and replaced her with a close colleague who was never vetted for the job.

The board terminated Keisha Scarlett’s contract in a closed session Monday and promoted her deputy Millicent Borishade to interim superintendent of St. Louis Public Schools. On Tuesday, the board made the promotion contingent on Borishade obtaining a Missouri superintendent certification.

The board did not release any details about the investigation into Scarlett’s spending habits and hiring practices that led to her ouster. Borishade was one of at least nine administrators hired at SLPS in the last year with connections to Scarlett and her previous role as an administrator in Seattle Public Schools.

Before arriving with Scarlett from Seattle in July 2023, Borishade worked for a charter school group and five other school districts between Illinois and Washington, leaving a history of conflicts in her 24-year career.

At SLPS, Borishade has created a “dysfunctional, chaotic, and hostile environment,� said social worker Andrea Thavorides, who resigned earlier this year after working in the district since 2014.

“Children in St. Louis do not deserve to have a temporary superintendent who is not certified, who does not listen to concerns brought up by staff members, and who does not understand the city of St. Louis. The children and families in St. Louis deserve better,� she said.

Borishade “has demonstrated many times how little she knows about the city of St. Louis and the needs of the children we are tasked with educating,� Thavorides said.

Thavorides said her main concern with Borishade stems from the decision in January to move Nahed Chapman New American Academy from Roosevelt High in the Tower Grove East neighborhood to Stevens Middle School, four miles and an hour-long city bus ride away in north St. Louis.

“Our concerns about taking students out of Roosevelt’s building to a new location were brushed off and completely ignored,� Thavorides said.

Multiple high school students, who are recent immigrants, dropped out because they could not navigate public transportation to Stevens and their afterschool jobs. Roosevelt is a half block from the International Institute, which provides services to immigrant and refugee families.

The international students also lost the opportunity to take elective courses and play sports with Roosevelt students along with access to the health clinic at the high school, Thavorides said.

The New American school was moved back to Roosevelt this fall, making two moves in as many semesters.

“I now find myself wondering how much money SLPS wasted on everything involved in this unnecessary mess both times,� Thavorides said.

Borishade has not responded to multiple interview requests or questions about district operations, including a transportation crisis in the six weeks since school started. In August, SLPS released a statement that said, “Dr. Millicent Borishade is unapologetically a warm demander of excellence and a champion for children. Sometimes that makes adults uncomfortable.�

History of conflict

One mother sued Borishade in federal court for violating her son’s constitutional rights in April 2012 when he attended Southwood Middle School in Country Club Hills, Illinois.

Borishade, who was principal at Southwood, accused the boy of stealing money and made him empty his pockets in her office, according to the lawsuit. Borishade then ordered a male teacher to strip search the boy in the bathroom where another student was present. No money was found, and the boy was not allowed to call his parents. The lawsuit claims that the boy was “degraded, traumatized, embarrassed, humiliated and profoundly affected� by the experience.

The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that strip searches in public schools are generally unconstitutional.

Borishade resigned from the Country Club Hills School District in June 2012, according to school board meeting minutes. The mother of the boy settled the lawsuit against Borishade, the teacher and the school district in 2013 for an undisclosed amount, court records show.

After leaving Country Club Hills, Borishade worked for one year as director of education at for-profit before joining near Seattle as a school improvement officer. In 2018, she became a principal at the nearby .

The president of the Highline teachers union at the time said staff had difficulty working with Borishade. None of the teachers at Borishade’s school, Cedarhurst Elementary, were willing to serve as the union’s building representative because of a fear of retaliation and an unwillingness to meet with the principal.

In an unprecedented move, the union president Sandy Hunt had to serve as Cedarhurst’s proxy representative for the monthly meetings with Borishade.

“It was very difficult to get her to discuss how her behavior was affecting culture and climate in the school,� Hunt said.

Borishade was eventually moved from the principal role to a newly created administrative role. Soon after the reassignment, Borishade left Highline for the 2,500-student Tukwila School District where she became chief academic officer in July 2022.

The next spring, Tukwila teachers urged Borishade to resign and accused her of demeaning and insulting staff, violating student privacy and ignoring special education.

One teacher said Borishade called immigrant families from Somalia “lazy� in a staff meeting. Borishade also denied a request to spend grant money on graduation caps and gowns for five homeless students.

“We have seen ourselves as a community who work collaboratively to better serve our students. Under the leadership of Dr. Millicent Borishade, this collaborative spirit has been denied repeatedly,� reads the May 2023 letter from the Tukwila Education Association describing the union’s vote of no confidence. “The primary concern of our membership, as always, is the impact on students resulting from the dysfunction of our current leadership.�

Two months later, Borishade arrived in St. Louis as one of Scarlett’s hand-picked “first followers,� the new superintendent said on social media.

Borishade was given a newly created position — chief of schools — and a salary of $185,961. She was promoted July 1 to deputy superintendent, another new position, and awarded a salary boost to $230,000. On July 25, the school board voted to make Borishade acting superintendent after placing Scarlett on paid leave.

When asked why Borishade was chosen amid public perceptions of cronyism among the Seattle transplants, school board president Antionette “Toni� Cousins said she was already running the day-to-day operations of the district.

One major roadblock for SLPS is Borishade’s lack of superintendent certification in Missouri, a requirement for full state accreditation of school districts. Borishade’s pathway to certification is unclear and could involve hours of coursework or professional development.

Cousins said Tuesday that Borishade holds superintendent certification in Washington and Illinois. On Wednesday, the district sent a press release correcting the record to say Borishade “has held� the certificates. Both certificates have expired.

Borishade applied for the superintendent certificate earlier this month, according to the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education.

The department’s spokeswoman Mallory McGowin said expired, out-of-state certificates are not considered valid for transferring to Missouri certification and added that Borishade’s application also needs a recommendation from National Louis University, where she got her doctorate degree.

The SLPS board has not said if they plan to conduct a search for a permanent superintendent for the 2025-2026 school year. At least seven veteran administrators in the district — Azalia Carter, Josh Henning, Shaimeka Humphrey, Benicia Nanez Hunt, Deanna Kitson, Isaac Pollack and Kay Royster— hold Missouri superintendent certification.

Editor's note: This story has been updated with new information about SLPS staff with superintendent certificates.