SAN DIEGO COUNTY, Calif. — The San Dieguito Union High School District board decided to move forward with a plan to conduct an audit process for foundations associated with schools within the district.
The move comes amid a recent report published by students which found possible tax violations and the transfer of large amounts of money. In September CBS 8 first spoke to two students part of the district who published a report on the Canyon Crest Academy Foundation.
“One is the missing salary disclosures for many years in violation of IRS rules …they put way more money into vague expense categories like other program expenses compared to other schools like last year they put $700,000 into other expenses making it their single largest expense category,” San Dieguito Union School District student Litong Tian said.
Tiang was one of the students who did the investigation, he said it included interviewing people in school and elsewhere and looking at public tax records and income statements.
During Thursday's district meeting, several people spoke out including Kristie Grover, a parent in the district who has previously served as an executive director for a foundation in San Diego. She said one of the first things she did was review the report.
“One of the things I found is that they did not verify facts before publishing it. For example, they mentioned unrestricted funds and then they later deleted it because it was untrue so that kind of triggered me to look further,” Grover said.
CBS 8 reached out to the Canyon Crest Academy Foundation for comment. They sent the following response to the district's decision to audit their finances:
"CCAF welcomes the news of a district audit and review of all school foundations, as we are confident in the integrity of our program.
"The Board of Directors of the Canyon Crest Foundation is committed to full transparency and ensuring the highest standards of accountability. Our focus remains on our mission and the school community we serve."