Kevin Wang, a 17-year-old senior at Canyon Crest Academy, was bored over the summer and needed something to do.
Then he remembered something that had bothered him back when he was a business officer for one of the school’s robotics teams: The school’s nonprofit foundation and main fundraising arm, the Canyon Crest Academy Foundation, was taking a bunch of money from his team.
The foundation kept 25 percent of every donation it collected on behalf of the robotics team. It did that for other student clubs, too, and it controlled the accounts of school-sponsored clubs, such as the robotics team, Kevin said.
Then, at the end of every fiscal year, it would take somewhere between 28 and 34 percent of the team’s revenue, Kevin said — the percentage varied year to year and wasn’t fully explained.
“I thought they were just super expensive — a rip-off,” Kevin said of the fees in an interview. “I just thought it was really wrong.”
Over the summer, he realized he still had access to the robotics team’s financial spreadsheets. So he began digging to find out where this fee money was going.
“What I found was, like, really shocking, and it just kept building up,” Kevin said.
His classmate Litong Tian, a 17-year-old senior who had questions of his own about the foundation as a member of the speech and debate team, joined him in his investigation. They combed through public records including the organization’s Forms 990, annual audited financial statements, website and bylaws, as well as the robotics team’s financial spreadsheets. They interviewed students and coaches at Canyon Crest and other schools in the San Dieguito Union High School District to compare notes.
They anonymously published what they found one week ago in a 15-page report on a website they titled “Ravens for Transparency.”
They found that the Canyon Crest Academy Foundation charges significantly higher fees from student clubs than its counterparts at other San Dieguito schools; clubs at other schools pay fees more to the tune of 5 or 10 percent, coaches and students from those clubs told Kevin and Litong. By Kevin’s calculation, their foundation had taken $150,000 of $242,000 in donation and grant revenue that was meant for the robotics team over six years.
The two students found that more than $674,000 of foundation expenses for the latest fiscal year — more than a third of its spending — were categorized as “other program expenses” on its audited financial statement, and they questioned what exactly donations to the nonprofit are paying for.
They found that the foundation had not reported its officers’ salaries on its 990s, as required, for several years.
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They also alleged that much of the money in fees that it took from the robotics team’s revenue was being used for management expenses, rather than student programs. According to Kevin and Litong’s report, the robotics team has seen none of the fee money go toward robotics expenses for the past six years.
The report noted that the foundation’s executive director of 12 years, Joanne Couvrette, left earlier this year without explanation. The organization announced her departure in a brief message to families in June.
One of the two choice schools in San Dieguito Union High School District, Canyon Crest Academy serves about 2,200 students, most of them from some of San Diego County’s wealthiest communities, including Rancho Santa Fe, Carmel Valley, Solana Beach and Del Mar.
The Canyon Crest Academy Foundation raises private money from student families and other local donors to fill in gaps in programming, supplies and other needs at the school that it says aren’t covered by state funding. Its website says it has paid for expenses like graduation nights, sports uniforms, pool rentals, lab equipment, upgrades for the school gym and weight room and guest teaching artists for the school’s conservatory program.
The foundation took in $1.9 million in revenue in the 2022-23 fiscal year, according to its latest 990.
“Especially in light of how vital the foundation is for processing parent donations and running school events and how their activities impact so many students, we were very disappointed to find that they were a lot less ethical and a lot less transparent than we hoped they would be,” Litong said in an interview.
Couvrette, the foundation’s former executive director, declined to comment for this story. Its finance manager, Gina Mahmood, did not respond to an email request for comment. But the foundation posted a webpage last week rebutting the report’s findings.
‘Grossly erroneous’
In response to the findings, Canyon Crest Academy Principal Brett Killeen condemned the report and reprimanded its authors in a school-wide email Thursday to families.
Killeen called the report “grossly erroneous and misleading” without specifying what he considers inaccurate. He accused its authors of misconduct, saying they “chose to hide behind anonymity” and “did not follow appropriate protocols for seeking information.”
Killeen said the school had found out that students had written the report.
“We will continue to educate them on professional ways to seek information in a safe and legitimate manner … to communicate effectively, following appropriate norms and with civility and accuracy,” he wrote.
Two days before he sent the email, Killeen had pulled Kevin from class to question him in his office.
School officials somehow linked the report to him and Litong, Kevin said. He said Killeen told him he had violated a conduct rule related to defamation but didn’t say whether he would be disciplined.
The two teens are applying to college this fall and need recommendation letters from their counselor. “We really can’t afford to be punished,” Kevin said.
He said that on Wednesday, Killeen brought in his parents and asked them to make him take down the website.
Kevin has been adamant about keeping it up; he and Litong only temporarily took it offline last week to adjust the wording of the report.
Canyon Crest Academy students Kevin Wang and Litong Tian, both 17, pose at their school in Pacific Highlands Ranch on Friday, Sept. 13, 2024. Tian and Wang published an investigation of their school’s foundation that focused on fees charged to student clubs, unidentified spending expenses and more. (Kristian Carreon / For The San Diego Union-Tribune)
In an email, Killeen told the Union-Tribune that “discipline was not part of the conversation” on Tuesday. He did not respond to a question from the Union-Tribune about whether he tried to get the website taken down.
He cited the district’s board policy about civility that says while the school board acknowledges the First Amendment’s freedom of speech protection, the board “also expects that all speech and expression will reflect norms of civil behavior on district grounds.”
‘Loss of community trust’
The foundation posted a new page on its website last week titled “Integrity, Governance, and Transparency” rebutting the students’ report.
Like Killeen’s email, it called the allegations in the report “untrue” and “incredibly irresponsible” but did not identify specific factual inaccuracies.
The 25 percent fees go toward “general funds” that pay for items shared by multiple student clubs or for sudden expenses, the foundation said.
It gave a few examples of what the “other program expenses” category pays for. Of that spending, $349,000 has gone to facilities, such as classroom furniture, flooring and sound systems, the nonprofit said. And last year the category included $128,000 for expenses related to student club camps and clinics, such as coaching stipends, it added.
One thing the foundation said was factually untrue was the report’s statement that it had failed to disclose salaries for executive director Couvrette and finance manager Mahmood for several years on its annual IRS filings.
Couvrette and Mahmood both began working for the foundation 12 years ago, according to their LinkedIn profiles. Prior to their hiring in 2012, it had been entirely volunteer-run, its 990s show.
Couvrette was making $53,750 as the organization’s executive director in 2014. It didn’t report her compensation again on its 990 until 2021, by which point her pay was $129,038. By last year, it had risen to $161,152.
The foundation only reported compensation for Mahmood on its 990 once, in 2014, when she made $18,494.
It claims on its webpage that it must only disclose pay for officers who make more than $150,000 a year. However, federal rules require organizations to disclose compensation for all current officers such as the executive director and chief financial officer, with no salary minimum, as well as for other key employees who make at least $150,000.
“We believe that most of these counter arguments are without merit and don’t believe any of them pose a significant issue,” Kevin said of the foundation’s rebuttal webpage in an email.
The foundation’s response focused on the financial damage it said the report would inflict on its fundraising efforts.
“One of the most concerning aspects of the document and website is the direct negative impact that will be felt by the students of CCA. Loss of community trust and a decline in donations will have an immediate impact on many student programs this year,” its webpage says.
“There is an opportunity to learn and grow, but growth will only be possible with accountability, a recognition of the harm caused by the document and website, and a desire to move forward constructively,” it adds.
Kevin and Litong say they anonymously asked the foundation to respond to their findings before they published their report but never heard back.
Instead, Killeen emailed them separately, asking to meet in person and saying the district has a non-retaliation policy. The students declined, not wanting to identify themselves.
The students’ report spread on social media last week and stirred up calls from some parents and community members for more scrutiny of the foundation.
“I’m impressed by the students who were brave to ask questions about CCA Foundation financials,” said Hong Wu, who said she is a parent of a Canyon Crest Academy graduate, at San Dieguito Union High’s board meeting on Thursday. “As a prior CCA Foundation donor, I’m eager to get the detailed financial report about the one-third of year-to-year revenue uncategorized.”