They say thousands of dollars raised to help students is instead paying for special meals and new jackets for school leaders.

The internal audit reported thousands of dollars earmarked specifically for students at Richard Montgomery High School were in fact spent elsewhere.

From January 2007 through March of this year:
-$9,400 went for an administration leadership retreat.
-$5,100 was used for restaurant meals for the principal and other officials.
-$1,100 was spent to buy eight jackets for administrators and staff.

All of these uses are prohibited by school policy.

"It's shocking, this is educational extortion in getting the fees out of us in the first place, and now we see it creates a slush fund," said Janis Sartucci.

Moreover, the audit said, the leadership retreat was held at a lavish Cambridge, Maryland resort even though the school's checking account was more than $14,000 in the red.

"What I will tell you is that the corrections that are called for in the audit are going to be made, and that is consistent with the way we always handle the audits," said Montgomery County Schools spokesman Steve Simon.

"That's inappropriate. Teacher funds should come out of the teacher budget," said parent David Bernheim.

Richard Montgomery's principal during that period, Moreno Carrasco, left this past June, tapped by the superintendent to train other high school principals.

Email To A Friend