The SDUHSD Board of Trustees voted to unanimously approve the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) at the Regular Board Meeting last Thursday, setting new regulations between the district and each school’s foundation regarding facility use, rental, finance and foundation records.

The MOU is expected to take effect on July 1, 2026 for all schools in the district except for Canyon Crest Academy (CCA), which will follow these terms starting Feb. 1, 2026. Under the “Facility Use and Rental Fees” section of the MOU, the district has authority over facility use instead of foundations.

The document was drafted after an independent audit advised the district to “clearly outline compliance requirements, define the scope of services permitted on District facilities, establish protocols for financial reporting and oversight and clarify the roles and responsibilities of each party,” among other recommendations.

Initially, the draft was to take effect on July 1, 2026. However, due to a facility rental mismanagement at CCA over the weekend of Dec. 5, the MOU was redrafted to take effect on Feb. 1, 2026.

At the Regular Board Meeting, the TPHS Foundation’s Executive Director Joe Austin explained that moving the date up would disrupt school budgeting plans. After further discussion, the board agreed to keep the original date of July 1, 2026 for all foundations except CCA.

Austin “fully supports” the MOU, but he would have liked a larger role in the discussion of developing the document.

“We get called in, you know, a day or so ahead to get a preview, but we don’t really have much time to give the kind of input I gave [on Thursday night], which is, like, ‘this is more disruptive than you think it is,’” Austin said.

Every year, the Foundation develops a budget; in February of 2026, they plan to develop a budget for the next fiscal school year between July 1, 2026 and June 30, 2027. 

“Once that budget is created — decisions about how much money we need to raise, how many staff we need to execute that plan, all those things — you are kind of committed to those,” Austin said. “So, for there to be such a significant change in a stream of revenue for the Foundation, to interrupt four or five months of our ability to earn by renting those facilities, [it] is going to change our financial plan for the year. That’s why I was saying it’s a really invasive move.”

Specific details of the MOU are not yet finalized for this school.

“There are still elements of it that we have not been presented,” school Principal Rob Coppo said. “So it’s difficult [to say] how exactly it’s going to change everything.”

Since 2016, school foundations took full responsibility for renting district facilities and collecting revenue from rentals, which does not follow the Civic Center Act. This prevents the district from collecting deferred maintenance money: funds to repair facility infrastructure and equipment for each school.

“The board is right in wanting to get back in compliance with [the] Civic Center Act in a way that not only makes them compliant with the law, but that also restores a stream of revenue to the district for when stuff wears out,” Austin said.

Austin plans to pitch a middle-ground model where the district allows TPHS Foundation staff to continue booking and using the school’s facility so that both the foundations and district share the revenue stream. That way, the district still makes money from rentals for deferred maintenance.

Besides funding, another concern is connection with the school’s programs. The school’s foundation works directly with many faculty and students on campus when renting out facilities; for example, Austin coordinates with Kara Adler — the school’s Advanced Video Film, Beginning Video Film and Advanced Journalism teacher — as well as student interns who work the jumbotron.

“My understanding is that the district taking [facility rentals] off of our plate and back to the district, where it belongs, would mean that we no longer have a role to play in that rental,” Austin said. “But they also aren’t connected to the video production interns the way that we are because we live here on campus and work with the teachers and support Mrs. Adler. So I think there’s going to be an interruption, at the very least.”

Until July 1, 2026, the process of renting out the school’s facilities to third-party companies occurs through the Foundation. Then, Austin notifies Kyle Busby (12), a student intern under the Foundation who is responsible for operating Ed Burke Field’s jumbotron.

“Joe Austin would say, ‘Hey, Kyle, the [third-party] field hockey tournament is going to be hosted here at Torrey Pines, they’re renting the stadium,’” Busby said. “‘We need content creation, music, graphics and … a team to go there and run it.’ I’m like, ‘Okay,’ so I get all that stuff ready, I get in contact with the third party rentals, the coaches, whoever is renting the field, and then we go from there. We create the content and we run the event.”

After July 1, 2026, though, Busby thinks transferring all rentals to the district would “make a big difference.”

“I don’t even know if I would be involved as much, because I intern for the Foundation,” Busby said. “So if they rent that facility, will they even know that these different amenities, like the jumbotron, are available to [use] if they’re just going straight through the district?”

Busby currently interns under the Foundation, not the district, but “could work with the district.” The “only thing” is that he does not want the district to add “extra steps” that require more preliminary approval.

“The ideal system would be, they rent it from Joe Austin or the district [and] they tell me,” Busby said. “They tell me how many people they’re going to pay for so I can get the amount of interns together, and then they give me the [third-party’s] email, and I can run and work with that third party renter without any interference.”

At this school, Coppo, Assistant Principal Nathan Molina, three Foundation employees and the Athletic Secretary Matthew Clarke are responsible for renting out the school facilities. Because of this, both Coppo and Austin are concerned regarding the district’s capacity to take on this work.

“[This school is] the busiest site in San Diego County,” Coppo said. “More goes on at this site than any other school … [The district is] effectively going to have one person for all of that work for [four] sites … So one person handling all four sites could be a challenge. What the other infrastructure is at the district office, I don’t know. Maybe they’ve got a plan for that. I’m going to trust their wisdom on that and hope they’ve got it set up.”