果酱视频

鈥淚t raises a red flag anytime we see tax dollars being wasted,鈥� said Sen. Maggie Nurrenbern, a Clay County Democrat, during a hearing of the Senate Education Committee.

The SLPS board fired ex-Superintendent Keisha Scarlett in September for hiring and spending practices during her one-year tenure, which included awarding $3 million in salaries and consulting contracts to her friends and former colleagues.

Nurrenbern said the Senate committee would review the comprehensive audit of SLPS by Missouri Auditor Scott Fitzpatrick when it is completed.

Committee members also voiced concerns about the district鈥檚 low test scores and an emergency transportation plan that could cost $40 million this school year.

鈥淭he school district鈥檚 basically having to get Ubers for kids, at what point do we really elevate鈥� to state intervention, said committee chairman Sen. Rick Brattin, R-Harrisonville.

Antionette 鈥淭oni鈥� Cousins, SLPS board president, later told the committee 鈥渇or clarification, we didn鈥檛 do Uber.鈥�

鈥淒on鈥檛 believe everything that you all are reading in the paper,鈥� Cousins added.

The district spent $465,000 last year on HopSkipDrive, a rideshare service for children. Taxicab companies have been paid more than $3 million to ferry kids to school. Reed 2 Reed, which was suspended by SLPS this fall for driving unlicensed and uninsured buses, has been paid $920,058 since September 2023.

Missouri Education Commissioner Karla Eslinger told the committee that SLPS is 鈥渙n the bubble鈥� of losing full accreditation in 2027, the earliest the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education will downgrade school districts due to performance.

The state education department returned SLPS to full accreditation in 2017 after a decade classified as unaccredited and then provisionally accredited. In 2019, the district was turned back to a locally elected board following 12 years under state control.

Enrollment and test scores in SLPS have continued to decline in the five years under local control. There are now 16,212 students in kindergarten through 12th grade, a drop of more than 15% since 2020. Last spring, 21% of students tested proficient in English and 17% in math, down slightly from pre-pandemic levels.

For the last three years, SLPS has scored in the provisional range on the state鈥檚 annual performance report, which measures test scores and graduation rates among other administrative requirements. Provisional accreditation comes with extra scrutiny from the education department. When a district becomes unaccredited, students are allowed to transfer to higher-performing districts.

State education officials have been advising SLPS leaders this year on academic and financial concerns. Eslinger said she plans to visit next week.

Cousins, the district鈥檚 board president, also opened the invitation to the legislators.

鈥淐ome see for yourself what really is happening in SLPS,鈥� Cousins said during the Senate hearing. 鈥淲e鈥檙e trying to figure out how to help SLPS and the city of 果酱视频 fix the education system.鈥�

Under the former leader Scarlett, the district鈥檚 general operating budget dropped from a surplus of $17 million to a projected deficit of $35 million, which was mostly attributed to staff raises and extra transportation costs.

With reserves of around $200 million the school district remains in healthy financial condition and the deficit spending is geared toward student services, according to Kari Monsees, deputy commissioner of DESE.

Several administrators at SLPS including former chief financial officer Angie Banks have said the district needs to close some of its 62 school buildings to return to a balanced budget. More than one-third of schools have fewer than 200 students, a standard measure of financial viability.

The SLPS board has not put school closures on the agenda this year.

Ezra Bitterman of the Post-Dispatch contributed to this report.