They blew the whistle — then the audit confirmed everything
Two former CCA students uncovered IRS issues and $3.5M in mismanaged funds, triggering an audit with 14 serious findings and reforms across the district
SAN DIEGO — A long-awaited audit has vindicated two former Canyon Crest Academy students over their findings of financial irregularities and financial mismanagement for the school’s foundation.
Kevin Wang and Litong Tian, both 18, unearthed and published serious findings in September 2024 regarding the CCA Foundation’s financial handling of robotic club fees and revenue from 2012-2024, including between $3.5 million to $3.9 million in unexplained expenses and a failure to report certain requirements to the IRS.
As a result of Wang and Tian’s investigation, the San Dieguito Union High School District Board of Trustees ordered an audit, which was released Monday by San Diego-based CWDL. The board meets at 6 p.m. today at the district office, 710 Encinitas Blvd.
In addition, one of the robotics coaches was fired on Monday after the audit was released, sources said.
The audit found significant issues with the lack of formal agreements between the district and foundations, no routine financial reporting, missing operating policies and procedures, weak internal controls, failure to disclose executive compensation, missing employee I-9 files required by federal law, improper tax reporting and more.
“When you donate to one of these clubs, the foundation takes a 25% stake in the donations,” Tian said. “That’s an unusually high number. It’s always been a very upsetting thing for many students that so much of the money that they are raising for their clubs are not going to their clubs.”
The CCAF board recently reduced the fees from 25% to 20%, according to the foundation.
The audit states the inaccurate financial reporting raises the risk of fraud, misappropriation of funds, and the potential of some foundations violating accounting standards and federal law.
The audit covered the foundations at CCA, San Dieguito Academy, Torrey Pines and La Costa Canyon high schools for the 2023-24 school year, Wang and Tian said. The audit found the most serious issues, 14 in total, with CCA compared to the other foundations, and CWDL recommended several actions for CCA, including an immediate forensic audit.
The audit states the foundation could be in jeopardy with the IRS, while other sources said potential investigations from the state Attorney General and San Diego County District Attorney’s offices may also be in play.
“Our opinions for La Costa, San Dieguito, and Torrey Pines states that the financial statements present fairly, in all material respects, the respective financial positions and results of operations of the Foundations in conformity with U.S. generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP),” the audit reads. “Our opinion for Canyon Crest Academy was modified because we were unable to obtain all required financial information necessary to ensure their financial statements are in compliance with GAAP.”
(Click on each image below for an audit recap)
The crux of the issue stems from fees charged by the CCAF to manage the donations and finances of clubs and athletics. The district, meanwhile, is prohibited from directing foundation employees and operations, although it is allowed access to the books, former CCAF President Amy Caterina said.
As for Torrey Pines, the audit, and Wang and Tian’s investigation, found the fees charged by the foundation are higher than LCC and SDA, but no major issues were discovered by CWDL. LCC and SDA performed better than CCA, but CWDL did report several recommendations to cover all foundations and the school district.
Regina Twomey, CCAF’s executive director, who was hired in July and inherited the situation, said the organization has refiled five years of 990 Forms to the IRS, among other steps.
“Over the past year, we’ve worked diligently to fully cooperate with the Audit Committee’s requests,” she explained. “We were told in writing that all necessary documentation had been received, and as recently as last week, we reviewed the report in detail with CWDL with no indication of any missing information. We are actively seeking more information to better understand any additional needs. As soon as we have more clarity, we can provide a more complete response and directly address any questions.”
Caterina, who was the CCAF board president from 2014-15, said she reviewed the foundation’s financials and found another $400,000 of unexplained expenses from other sources, pushing the total to at least $3.9 million.
But the $3.9 million question is, where did the money go? Wang and Tian said they still have not figured out how the money was spent and have never received a response from the CCAF, or the district.
CCAF Board President Sandra Sincek, though, said the organization remains committed to transparency, accountability and continuous improvement.
“In the meantime, it’s important to note that this audit is for the 2023-2024 school year, and we have already taken significant steps during the last school year to improve and strengthen our operations — adjusting allocation ratios: formerly 75/25, it was changed to 80/20 in April 2025; revising our fee structure for various programs and initiatives as indicated in the audit findings; and refiling five years of 990 forms,” she explained. “We are also actively working to resolve the remaining minor issues identified and have developed a corrective action plan based on the district audit.”
Trustee Michael Allman had choice words in a social media post for the audit’s findings, management and financial misses by CCAF and CCA Principal Brett Killeen. Allman said the accusations raised by the students were determined to be founded, but the initial reaction of the CCAF and CCA administration was to label them as misinformed and acting out of ignorance.
He said after the students uncovered inappropriate behavior at the CCAF, they were publicly vilified and privately harassed by members of the administration and the foundation. Allman said the audit is a complete vindication, and they deserve to be seen as the heroes that they are.
Allman, like Wang and Tian, said a memorandum of understanding between the district and all foundations is critical for financial transparency. Allman said three of the high school foundations have accepted all of the corrective actions suggested by the auditors.
However, the CCAF has always resisted being transparent with how it spends its money, and has not accepted that they should respect targeted donations parents make to specific student clubs. He said lowering their “confiscation rate” to 20% is completely inappropriate.
“CCAF refused to provide access to their detailed financial records to SDUHSD staff and board members, even though they legally are a ‘school connected organization’ and the District is required to include the CCAF financial statements in the district’s owns financial disclosures,” Allman stated. “25% (sic) of all donations to student clubs at CCAF was inappropriately siphoned to discretionary accounts controlled by the CCA principal and the executive director of the CCAF. The CCAF board failed to provide adequate oversight of the principal and executive director.
The investigation
In spring 2024, Wang was in the business department of the robotics team, while Tian was a member of the Speech and Debate Club. Wang, who will attend Indiana University this semester, saw the team’s financials as part of his responsibilities and noticed they were being charged a “ridiculous” amount in fees by CCAF to manage the finances, while the team was almost never granted approval for any spending to help the team.
