Parents:

Newport-Mesa Unified School District officials and school board members began investigating a complaint against the Corona del Mar High School cheerleaders booster club Wednesday.

A group of parents filed the complaint earlier this week and presented it at Tuesday’s school board meeting. The parents claim that more than half the competitions scheduled for the team this school year were canceled due to lack of funds, which they were told was due to some parents not paying their children’s dues to be on the squad.

“The girls came home disappointed that they weren’t going to be in more competitions when it was laid out that there was going to be a total of 10,” said Pete Reynolds, the parent of a girl on the squad.

The parents said booster club leaders refused to let them have copies of the club’s financial records, and the district plans to investigate why the requests were denied.

Cheerleader costs are in the thousands of dollars, with $2,500 in booster dues, $1,500 for uniforms, $345 for cheer camp and $420 for the national competition in Anaheim per student, according to the complaint.

While the school district provides an advisor for the program, Corona del Mar Assistant Principal Dave Peterson, the booster club funds pay for the two coaches of the program.

Peterson declined comment on the matter Wednesday.

Supt. Jeffrey Hubbard promised parents at the school board meeting that Assistant Supt. of Secondary Education Chuck Hinman and Assistant Supt. of Human Resources Elizabeth Novack will spearhead the investigation of the complaint.

Hinman visited Corona del Mar on Wednesday to discuss the matter with school officials, a spokeswoman for the district said.

“We take this very seriously, the allocations that are in the complaint,” Newport-Mesa spokeswoman Laura Boss said. “We are going to be involved every step of the way to see the program is being handled appropriately for the kids.”

There are two separate issues the district is investigating, the first being that a district employee, Peterson, is involved in the complaint, Boss said. The other is that the district must work with the booster who controls the funds from the parents, which is separate from the district, she said.

DANIEL TEDFORD may be reached at (714) 966-4632 or at daniel.tedford@latimes.com.