FLORISSANT, Mo. – Two years ago, Missouri state Rep. Keith English said he was assured that the Hazelwood school district, located in the district he represents, was in good financial shape, with a solid fund balance.

Then earlier this year he learned that the district suddenly has a $15 million budget deficit and is planning to make roughly $6 million worth of cuts to various programs over each of the next two years.

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Those cuts will curtail band, orchestra, physical education and field trips for many students, a fact that has outraged the community.

English said he reached out to district leaders with an offer to help secure more state funding, but was largely ignored. He said many concerned parents and residents were treated in a rude and arrogant fashion by the school board when they attended an overcrowded meeting to protest.

Residents were also annoyed that the district waited to announce the cuts to the student programs until two days after the filing deadline for this year’s school board elections, according to English. There were no challengers to incumbents, so no election took place, in accordance with state law.

So English, along with several parents in the district, started doing some digging, to find out exactly how school administrators have been spending money, and why it was so necessary to start cutting student services.

Their tentative findings have prompted them to start a petition drive to force the state to conduct an independent audit of district finances.

“We (in the Missouri legislature) have not yet fully funded the foundation formula (for public school funding) yet,” English, a graduate of the Hazelwood school district, told EAGnews. “When you look at the abuse and wasteful spending in schools across the state, it’s no wonder a lot of politicians are not in a hurry to fully fund it.

“Their interest is not with the children,” he added, regarding school administrators in Hazelwood, in particular. “They are interested in paying their friends and making six figures themselves.”

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While English and other residents are still digging through financial records, they have found more than enough information to raise red flags, particularly when it comes to district administrative salaries.

In 2015, a total of 40 administrators made at least $100,000 in straight salary, not counting expensive health insurance coverage and other benefits.

They also learned that the Hazelwood district has a comparatively top-heavy and expensive high command. One superintendent and six assistant superintendents made a combined $1.083 million in straight salary in 2015.

That’s a lot more than neighboring districts spend on top administrators.

The Rockwood district, which had more students than Hazelwood in 2015, employed one superintendent and two assistants for a total of $534,450.

The Parkway district, which had about the same number of students as Hazelwood, employed one superintendent and three assistants for a total of $672,683.

English and concerned residents also learned about the compensation package awaiting the new Hazelwood superintendent, Nettie Collins-Hart, who will begin her duties June 1. She will start with a healthy salary of $235,000, not counting benefits.

She will also have a combined 33 vacation, sick or personal days each year, which means, if she uses them all, she could make nearly $30,000 for days she doesn’t work.

The district doesn’t have a very good track record with recent superintendents, according to English. It has employed three in the past three years, with the first two being fired by the school board. The first of those three exited with a severance package valued at close to $1 million, he said.

Collins-Hart’s predecessor, Ingrid Clark-Jackson, made $230,309 in 2015, despite the fact that she was only an interim superintendent who was filling in until the job was filled.

Clark-Jackson has been pretty generous with salaries for other administrators, according to English.

He claims she transferred one assistant superintendent who made six figures into a coaching position, while allowing him to keep his salary. Coaches in the district usually make no more than $50,000 per year, according to English.

English said Clark-Jackson also transferred another assistant superintendent to a principal position – which he says usually pays in the $80,000 range – while still maintaining a six-figure salary.

Both of the two former assistant superintendents were replaced by others who also make six figures, English said.

English also said the school district has created two new information technology administrative positions, along with a new curriculum director position, each paying more than $100,000 per year.

“The rumor mill says they are planning to cut foreign language and art in the district next year to make up for the other $6 million (deficit), but nowhere does it say they are going to cut any administration,” English said. “If you’re bleeding, why open up the wound even more?”

English also learned that the district is planning to eliminate $80,000 set aside in the budget for student field trips while maintaining $45,000 in meal money for school board members attending meetings.

He discovered that approximately 2,400 employees in the district are due to receive a one percent “step” salary increase in the next fiscal year. But administrators miscalculated the cost of the general raise in its new budget, leaving the district $64,000 short, he said.

Now English is assisting a petition drive to force the state to conduct an independent audit of the school district. The group has already collected roughly 2,500 signatures and has until March 1, 2017 to gather at least 5,000.

English has also called for the resignation of school board President Desiree Hancock by July 1. If she doesn’t resign, he said he will begin a effort to recall her from office.

In response to the public outcry, school officials recently announced that some of the music programs that were targeted for cuts will be reinstated to a limited degree. But English is not impressed.

“It’s a smoke screen to cover up real problems,” he said. “There’s bleeding going on throughout the district.”