The San Diego Unified School District Board of Education voted 3-2 Tuesday to spend $250,000 to hire a Denver firm to rewrite criteria used to evaluate principals.

The vote came amid an undercurrent of concern that the district was spending money on consultants during difficult economic times.

Five items on the board's consent agenda regarding the hiring of consultants were pulled and subjected to discussions among the board members.

A second item, on student behavioral health interventions, also passed 3-2.

The others passed by 4-1 votes.

Superintendent Terry Grier told the board members that what he called "the instrument" used to evaluate principals, adopted in 1999, was out of date.

It was also out of line with the board's goals regarding student achievement, he said.

The consultant, Mid-continent Research for Education and Learning, was needed to make the new evaluation system strong enough to stand up in court, Grier said.

Trustee Shelia Jackson said it was "irresponsible" to spend the money at this time and "insulting" to staff members to suggest they couldn't come up with a legally viable method of evaluation.

The money should go to school sites to be used for students, "not adults to line their pockets," Jackson said.

Separately, the board unanimously voted to approve spending $1.4 million to install Field Turf at the Morse High School football stadium.

The Skyline area school is a former gridiron powerhouse which has had quality players transfer to other schools partly because its current field is in such poor condition.

The board has a special meeting scheduled Wednesday to brainstorm ideas for how to save junior ROTC programs at area high schools.

The California Department of Education has interpreted state legislation on physical education as meaning that the military training program no longer qualifies for PE class credit.

ROTC supporters told the board that if students didn't receive a PE exemption, they would then be unable to join the program.