School board chief calls fundraiser for sons’ tuition ‘mistake of the heart’
Blog note: this article references
a May 2015 grand jury report regarding ethics and conduct rules for the San
Diego Unified School District.
San Diego —
San Diego school board President Marne Foster called the July fundraiser for
her sons’ college tuition “a mistake of the heart” on Tuesday, and promised to
return donations made by district employees and associates.
Foster
helped promote the July 25 “Brothers 2 College” benefit, which she said was
organized by her mother and a nonprofit dance organization, to help pay tuition
and college debt for two of her sons.
Participants
paid $25 at the door or $20 in advance to attend the concert and dance recital,
which was held at the Neighborhood House Association headquarters, which has a
contract with the district.
The benefit
renewed criticism that Foster, a single mother of four sons who campaigned as a
strong advocate for her own children and others, has used her public office for
personal gain.
In a prepared
statement, Foster stopped short of apologizing for the event. She said she was
“deeply pained by the news reports” about the benefit.
“My actions
can be, and frequently are, parsed, analyzed and criticized,” Foster said.
“Although it may sound naive, it never occurred to me that ‘Marne the Mom’, by
supporting an effort to help my sons go to college, was stepping into territory
occupied by ‘Marne the Elected Official.’
Foster went
on to say that school district attorneys assured her that the event was legal.
However, in the name of “openness and transparency,” Foster said she felt “the
public has the right to know all the details when elected officials are
associated with fundraisers in circumstances such as these.”
Any district
employee or associate will have their contribution returned, and the few
contributions made anonymously to a crowdfunding website will be donated to the
nonprofit Heartbeat Music Academy, which provides mentoring and leadership
development to youth in underserved communities.
Most of
those who attended the event and made donations were friends, family and
members of Foster’s church, according to a list released Tuesday. Among the
attendees who had district connections were: John Lee Evans, vice president of
the school board, whose $100 donation has been returned; Lindsay Burningham,
president of the San Diego Education Association; and Michael Brunker,
executive director of the Jackie Robinson Family YMCA, which has a contract
with the district.
Cash raised
through the sales of drawing tickets will be retained by the nonprofit C.
Anthony Cole Repertory Dance Theatre, which Foster said organized the event.
The
fundraiser was first reported by the Voice of San Diego.
Last month,
the state Attorney General’s Office sent an inquiry to C. Anthony Cole
Repertory Dance Theatre to inquire about the prize drawings, where ribbons of
ticket were sold for $10. The letter summarizes the complicated state legal
requirements for holding raffles, and informs the nonprofit that the case would
be referred to the district attorney if it does not receive a response by Sept.
9. Foster’s response comes a day shy of that deadline.
Foster said
she has asked the event organizer for a complete accounting of all donations
and expenses from the event, and will make them public by keeping them on file
with Cheryl Ward, the school district clerk.
About $1,456
in donations were made at the event; and $489 was contributed in the way of
in-kind services, according to an email list provided by Foster. Some $2,379 in
expenses were also listed, including $687 to rent a Neighborhood House
conference room. It’s not clear how much money was raised in advance of the
event, but the organizer said last month that a total of $4,000 was generated
for the Foster boys.
Foster was
not immediately available to discuss her statement on Tuesday. But in it she
said, “Painful though it has been, this has been a learning experience for me.”
Foster, who
is up for re-election next year, went on say, “While my children have already
graduated from this District, I will continue to fight for the 130,000 students
in San Diego Unified who count on our board to put their needs first.”
On Aug. 19, San Diego Unified
responded to a May county grand jury report that called for San Diego Unified
to strengthen its ethics and conduct rules for trustees. The district said it
would be taking no action.
The grand jury found the
district’s conduct code, conflict-of-interest policy, and governance manual are
“not sufficient to prevent trustees from exerting undue influence in matters
involving a particular school within their district.”
The grand jury did not identify
any trustee or campus, but the findings match an August 2014 report in the
Union-Tribune, detailing accusations that Foster wielded her political
influence to resolve a personal matter at her son’s school.
September 8, 2015
San
Diego Union-Tribune
By
Maureen Magee
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