PITTSBURGH – Pittsburgh school officials approved a massive $200,000 marketing campaign to boast about the district’s academic achievements, despite a multi-million dollar budget shortfall projected for next school year.

District leaders agreed to spend $206,000 for a marketing campaign with WPXI-TV that included $52,500 as lead sponsor for the WPXI Holiday Parade last Saturday, as well as paid coverage through the “news” station, TribLive.com reports.

The deal requires WPXI to produce a 30-minute special with positive stories about student learning in the district, as well as four 30-second vignettes about efforts to improve teaching. School board members approved the contract Oct. 22 without taking bids from other media outlets, and a three and a half minute segment featuring district spokespeople talking up the district kicked off the campaign Nov. 26, according to TribLive.com.

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

“They’re selling buildings. They’ve had layoffs. Usually spending money on advertising is not something you think of a district doing when it’s complaining about not having enough money,” Jake Haulk, president of the Allegheny Institute for Public Policy, told the news site.

The Pittsburgh school district faces a projected $26.6 million deficit for 2015, but district officials contend the money for the marketing campaign came from a $40 million Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation grant received in 2009.

“This is about making people feel good about where they work and where they attend school. And we think it will impact the teaching and learning environment,” Ebony Pugh, district spokeswoman, told Trib Live.

The marketing campaign is undoubtedly aimed at stemming the tide of students leaving the district for a better education. The news site reports that enrollment in Pittsburgh schools has plummeted from 34,000 students in 84 schools in the 2004-05 school year, to about 25,500 students in 54 schools this year.

Academic achievement in recent years has been mixed – with a wide gap between the district’s best and worst performing schools.

While the high school graduation rate has improved overall in the last couple of years, going from 68.5 percent in 2011 to 77.4 percent in 2013, schools like Pittsburgh Perry High School went from a 79.8 percent graduation rate to a 64.2 percent graduation rate, the Post-Gazette reports.

MORE NEWS: How to prepare for face-to-face classes

There’s also similar performance issues at lower grade levels.

A recent school report showed that at Pittsburgh Sunnyside PreK-8 76 percent of black third-graders scored proficient or advanced in reading, while only 17 percent are proficient or better at Arlington PreK-8. Less than half of white students were proficient at Arlington PreK-8, according to the Post-Gazette.

Chronic absenteeism is another problem. At Perry High School, for example, 66 percent of students missed more than 18 days of school last year.

But instead of devoting additional resources to those issues, they money will go toward patting teachers and district leaders on the back.

The district’s parade participation included performances by school bands and students from the Pittsburgh Creative and Performing Arts School, Trib Live reports.

District superintendent Linda Lane, board members and their families and other students rode on a special float.

The district replaced Macy’s as the Holiday Parade’s top sponsor, but the parade would have sent on with or without the district’s contribution, WPXI program director Mark Barash told the news site.

The district’s preliminary general fund budget for next year is $556.4 million. Board member Mark Brentley voted in favor of spending the $206,000 with WPXI, but believes the decision should have went through the Communications Committee, of which he is the chair.

That committee would have comparison shopped to ensure the best deal, but instead the decision went through the district’s Education Committee “because it involved teacher effectiveness,” according to Trib Live.

“As far as I’m concerned, it’s a small amount that was needed,” he told the news site.