ENCINITAS — The San Dieguito Union High School District has adopted a memorandum of understanding setting new operating regulations for its four high school foundations, including significant changes to management of facility rentals following a recent “inappropriate” livestream filmed in a school gym.
Adoption of an MOU was one of several recommendations outlined in an August audit report related to the school foundations earlier this year, with the goal of improving transparency and oversight for the foundations at Canyon Crest Academy, San Dieguito Academy, Torrey Pines High School and La Costa Canyon High School.
This process began after two now-graduated CCA students released a report outlining significant concerns related to the financial practices of their school foundation.
The SDUHSD board of trustees first reviewed a draft MOU in November, with plans for it to take effect for all foundations in July. However, after the CCA school gym was rented out for a livestream featuring not-safe-for-school content earlier this month, the timeline was bumped up.
On Dec. 11, the board approved, by a 4-0 vote, the MOU terms for the CCA Foundation, effective Feb. 1, while maintaining the original July 1 timeline for the other three foundations. Board President Jodie Williams was absent for part of the discussion and abstained from voting.
“Recent events have highlighted the necessity of returning this responsibility for reviewing, approving, and managing all facility use agreements — specifically those not directly related to school activities — to the district itself,” said Superintendent Anne Staffieri. “This never should have happened, and we must move with urgency and purpose to make sure that it never happens again.”
Since around 2016, the high school foundations have coordinated the rental of district facilities and collected the fees to generate revenue. The MOU returns this responsibility to the district and requires foundations to pay a nonprofit facility-use fee to rent facilities, unless the use is for a school-affiliated camp or clinic.
The board considered moving the MOU start date to February for all four foundations, including changes to facility rentals. However, leaders of the Torrey Pines, San Dieguito Academy, and La Costa Canyon foundations said this could have detrimental financial impacts.
TPHS Foundation Director Joe Austin said the foundation has booked facility rentals totaling around $120,000 in revenue, of which less than half has been collected. If the changes take effect in February, the foundation would have to make “tough decisions” about which programs to fund, he said.
“I don’t believe that accelerating this MOU with regard to my foundation is going to improve the situation. In fact, it’s going to have an almost immediate detrimental impact on the students we serve,” Austin said.
He also raised concerns about the impact on relationships with community partners that regularly rent school facilities, such as sports leagues and churches, and on the foundations’ ability to continue collecting revenue.
Trustees said they understand that the foundations will still be able to collect revenue for school camps and clinics without incurring additional fees. However, they agreed to hold additional discussions with foundation leaders to understand their concerns and align everyone.
Many of these same concerns were raised in 2023, when the district considered a draft agreement to regain control of facility rentals from the foundations. However, the board ultimately chose not to move forward at that time.
Trustee Phan Anderson said that adopting these changes earlier could have prevented situations like the recent CCA gym rental.
“If we had taken care of that and took over the facility rental back then, who knows? We may not have gotten ourselves into this situation that is quite embarrassing,” Anderson said.
The MOU also standardizes the fees that can be charged per donation to ensure consistency across all four foundations.
Each foundation may charge an administrative fee of up to 10% on each donation. Foundations may also allocate a percentage of each program-specific donation to a larger shared fund, but donors must be able to opt out.
Prior to the MOU, the CCA Foundation would automatically allocate 25% of each donation made to a specific club to a general fund for athletics, arts, or STEM to support wider programs.
The MOU also requires regular financial reports to the district; retention of supporting materials, such as receipts, invoices, and approval emails; filing Form 990 with the IRS; and documentation and approval of all credit card transactions, with monthly reconciliation of cash and investments.
Foundations must also establish a pre-approval process to verify documentation before distributing funds and maintain appropriate liability insurance.
The topic of the livestream in the CCA gym came up repeatedly during the meeting.
Some community members, as well as trustees Michael Allman and Anderson, said the entire CCA Foundation board, made up of parent volunteers, should step down. CCA Foundation President Regina Twomey stepped down the day after the Dec. 12 meeting.
“Terrible, terrible incident. Failure systemically on multiple levels,” Allman said of the incident.
Other community members urged the board not to rush a decision due to the controversy and noted that more collaboration with the foundations is needed.
“I understand there’s an incident driving this, but I urge caution so that mistakes are not made and that people have the time to make thoughtful plans,” said Melissa Fischel.
Trustee Rimga Viskanta emphasized that the foundations are indispensable partners to the district and provide crucial support to student programs, and reminded the community that foundations and the district are on the same team.
However, she said this situation highlighted the need to change how facility rentals are managed.
“A deeply troubling incident brought heightened attention to facility rentals at our school sites. Sometimes, terrible events make manifest the cracks in our systems. It is our responsibility as trustees to acknowledge them, address them, and repair them so they cannot widen into something more serious,” said Viskanta.
