Where Do Foundation Donations Really Go?

Update October 2017 - we are still only able to track $387,498.81 going from TPHSF to the District/Site. The invoices noted show: $155,828 paid for 44 Floater Coaches and $95,911.60 paid for miscellaneous salaries and stuff.

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Per the CA Constitution and the position of the CA Dept. of Ed, districts are required to pay for all expenses related to school programs, including extracurricular if offered by the school or district. (Visit FMCAT to get an idea of what districts should be paying for). And yet it wasn't until this spring, that the School Board decided for the first time that it (instead of the parents) should start paying for the rental of pool facilities that our district's CIF aquatic teams and students use, sometimes to earn PE credit. Prior to this, it was the only district that made its families pay for this facility fee until a couple of other parents started asking why parents had to pay the facility fee, especially because the CA Ed Code required instruction in aquatics per those parents. The district's overdue assumption of this facility cost increased the district's general fund budget by $100,000.

What other sports fees are parents paying that should otherwise be included in our district's budget? Shouldn't the District be budgeting for all school sponsored activities under the CA Constitution guarantee to free public education? Then, if the families choose to donate through the foundations, there's a nice windfall at the end of the school year. Instead, it appears that the foundations simply agree to assume the costs of programs, and then ask the parents to raise money to cover the costs. Source: Pool Rental Fee: School Board Agenda see page 273 - 6.8.17

Current practices seem to be that payments for the athletic programs are now the foundation's sole obligation because district budgets no longer really even include the costs of the programs in the annual budgets. Families, try taking a look at the budgets usually proposed in June. Try asking why are families paying so much?

District Policy 6145.4 ar-1 outlines that each high school is authorized 8 floater coaches. However, in March 2012 Superintendent Schmitt said, in an e-mail, he did not care how many floater coaches as long as a cap was agreed to amongst the schools. And guess who pays for the "floater" coaches?

Real costs of programs v. Foundation requests? In March 2012, Superintendent Schmitt suggested in emails that each sport only ask for a "real cost"donation of parents; for example the "real" cost of SDA Cross Country was only $48; TP Football real cost was only $177. And yet, foundations request "donations" of far more than that. Source: Public Record Copy of Schmitt e-mails

How many CIF-out of Season Club Sports does each Foundation run? How many of them are run by the in-season of sport Coach? How many of these programs are paying coaches within the loophole that was allowed by Rick Schmitt? --

Source(s): Torrey Pines High School Foundation 2015-2016 IRS 990

See Public Record Copy loophole e-mail page 5

"Is our district too close with our public school foundations"