HAZELWOOD, Mo. (KMOX)-The Hazelwood School District is being accused of discriminating against blacks and minorities when it comes to working on construction projects in the district.

St. Louis NAACP President Adolphus Pruitt says the school board’s procurement policy requires companies bidding on projects, to employ workers who’ve graduated from an approved union apprenticeship program. Pruitt says because few blacks and women complete that program, they are being shut out, “When you look at the apprenticeship program in the St. Louis region you see on average 16 thousand individuals in there, less than 500 of them are African-American,  less than are 100 female, then at the end of the day 90-95%t of the workforce pool that comes out of the program are white male.”

Pruitt says that means the workforce doesn’t even reflect the school district itself, “You graduate out of the school district your chances of working on a school funded project are nil.”

Pruitt handed its report on the policy to the board this week. The district has issued a statement says it is reviewing the report.

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