Two more managers leave St. Louis Public Schools amid leadership turnover

ST. LOUIS — The heads of finance and human resources at St. Louis Public Schools will depart this month, leaving the superintendent’s cabinet nearly empty.

Karlla Dozier, chief of human resources compliance, started an “approved leave” Tuesday, according to a staff memo sent by Millicent Borishade, interim superintendent.

Angie Banks, chief financial officer, will retire Dec. 31.

The departures create vacancies at the top of at least nine offices including academics, accountability, communications, finance, food services, human resources, public relations, security and transportation.

Only two cabinet-level leaders — Square Watson, chief of operations, and Myra Berry, chief of human resources operations — were with the district prior to the 2023 arrival of former superintendent Keisha Scarlett.

The staff memo states that much of Dozier’s duties will be handled by Berry. The headhunting firm Ray and Associates has a job posting for chief financial officer with a starting salary of $165,000.

Banks originally planned to retire after the 2023-2024 school year. Matthias Greywoode, a mortgage analyst with ties to Scarlett, was hired last May to replace Banks with a salary of $200,000.

Greywoode was one of six administrators who left the district in July immediately after Scarlett was suspended during an investigation of her spending and hiring practices. The SLPS board fired Scarlett in September and has not released the results of the investigation.

Banks stayed on during the leadership turnover and delayed her retirement to the end of this year.

“Ms. Banks has served SLPS for more than 17 years and is ready to step into the next chapter of her life,” Borishade wrote in a staff memo Tuesday. “We are grateful for her dedicated service and contributions to SLPS.”

The next chief financial officer will inherit an operating budget with a projected deficit of $35 million for fiscal 2025. The district is collecting bids for new transportation providers after this year’s patchwork plan sparked safety concerns. In August, Missouri Auditor Scott Fitzpatrick launched a comprehensive audit of the district.

Banks has repeatedly said SLPS has too many schools, citing the situation as a leading cause of the issues with finances and operations.

“If we’re going to get back to balanced budgeting, that means some belt-tightening. Some hard decisions are going to have to be made,” Banks told the board in August. “We need to right-size the district ... and we need to do it sooner rather than later, because the numbers just don’t work.”

Enrollment in SLPS has dropped by more than 3,000 students in the last five years. There are 16,212 kindergarten through 12th grade students in 62 schools across the city. Similar-sized districts in St. Louis County like Hazelwood and Parkway operate with half as many schools.