POUGHKEEPSIE, N.Y. – Parents and school board members in the perpetually cash-strapped Poughkeepsie City School District are questioning a $6,500 fee for an 11-year-old keynote speaker at a recent Superintendent’s Conference Day.

Marley Dias, creator of the #1000BlackGirlBooks campaign, addressed staff for about an hour about the lack of racial diversity in children’s literature, and held a hour and a half long workshop for about 50 students on Tuesday, the Poughkeepsie Journal reports.

MORE NEWS: From Classroom to Consulate Chef: Culinary Student Lands Dream Job at U.S. Embassy in Paris

The next day, the school board voted 3-1 to pay Dias $6,500, plus expenses, for her time, despite repeated annual budget shortfalls that have forced district officials to freeze salaries and cut jobs to balance its finances, NBC New York reports.

Trustee Felicia Watson was the lone vote against the payment.

“$6,500 plus incidentals … is exorbitant,” Watson said, citing the district’s poor financial condition.

According to the Journal:

Poughkeepsie is in a tougher financial spot than other local districts, with at least 80 percent of its students considered economically disadvantaged, according to Journal archives. The district, which has lower-than-average — but increasing — graduation rates, relies on state aid for more than 65 percent of its budget and officials have said it doesn’t get nearly enough financial help to serve its students.

Like other districts, Poughkeepsie has cut jobs, frozen salaries and increased class sizes in an effort to balance budgets. The district regularly struggles to close multi-million-dollar budget gaps. Parents have long complained that district schools lack librarians.

Local resident Gregory Melton also spoke out at Wednesday’s board meeting.

Dias is a “lovely girl,” but “we always talk about … that we’re financially strapped,” Melton said.

MORE NEWS: Know These Before Moving From Cyprus To The UK

Others, like superintendent Nicole Williams and trustee Raymond Duncan attempted to justify the expense.

[xyz-ihs snippet=”NEW-In-Article-Rev-Content-Widget”]

Williams pointed to Dias’ “tremendous” resume and said the district shouldn’t discriminate against the “world-renowned” speaker “because she’s 11 years old.”

Dias’ literacy initiative is “inspiring young people” to read, she said, something the district desperately needs.

“About 90 percent of our students are below reading level. We have to motivate our scholars to read,” Williams said, adding that the tween’s message was “just as powerful as any adult’s.”

Besides, the superintendent said, “prior to my arrival as superintendent … on average, keynote speakers … (cost) $10,000 on average.”

Duncan acknowledged that spending $6,500 on a speaker might be an issue for some taxpayers, but argued to pay the expense because is already baked into the budget with discretion given to the superintendent.

“I know there were a number of concerns raised regarding this,” he said. “But … we still have a line item (in the budget) for the superintendent’s initiatives. If the superintendent chooses to spend money to bring a speaker in (within that line item budget), I’m going to (approve it) unless it’s something I find totally unnecessary.

“We hire the superintendent to run the district,” Duncan said.

The resolution to pay Dias approved by the board states federal Title I funds will be used to pay for her services and expenses. Officials have not revealed how much the expenses will add to the cost, nor have they released a copy Dias’ consulting contract, the Journal reports.

Federal Title I funds are supposed to be devoted to helping “disadvantaged” students.

“A district must submit to the state education agency a plan for how it will use the funds to improve academic achievement among disadvantaged students,” the Journal quoted from the nonprofit Formula Fairness Campaign. “The district have wide discretion in determining how the money is to be used.”