The email to Torrey Pines High School baseball parents from the program’s liaison to the Torrey Pines Foundation arrived late in the evening of Tuesday, Feb. 21. It began with pleasantries and an introduction of the coaching staff for the upcoming season.

Parents were then informed that there would be a mandatory player/parent meeting on the upcoming Saturday. Under that paragraph were these words, in bold and underlined: “On Saturday, please bring your check books.”

The email went on to explain that “each year it costs over $85,000 to run the Torrey Pines baseball program” and cited various expenses. The email further stated that despite previous fundraising of more than $40,000, money was still needed to cover costs.

“We are asking again for a MINIMUM donation of $695,” read the next line, in bold letters.


While noting that contributions are “completely voluntary” and tax deductible, the email added, “The program would not exist without your generous support and (in bold) we were grateful for 100% participation from our families last season.”

Torrey Pines parent Wendy Gumb read that email and said she was floored by the brazen way the public school baseball program was asking for money.

“Students don’t have to give that money, and I don’t think people in our district understand that,” Gumb said when she spoke in front of the San Dieguito Union High School District board in March.

“People don’t want to be strong-armed to donate money. And if we’re going to be strong-armed, we should know how the district is spending it. The district needs to be more accountable for how the money is coming in, and how it’s going out.”


Gumb said her experiences with Torrey Pines baseball as a parent have put her on a “mission” to expose and change various ways in which she thinks the high school sports system is shaped by money and outside influences.

On Jan. 3, Gumb delivered to SDUHSD a 16-page document as a request to investigate the Torrey Pines High baseball program. She also sent a copy to the CIF San Diego Section office.

As a result of Gumb’s request, SDUHSD hired a third-party investigative company, The Sobel Group, to look into her concerns. The inquiry began in late January and is still going on. When it’s completed, the investigators will deliver a finding of facts to the district, which will then decide what further actions to take.

“It’s a whole lot of information – more than I’ve seen in any complaint or concern about a program from a parent,” said CIF Commissioner Jerry Schniepp, who declined to speak on the specifics of the Torrey Pines complaints, citing the ongoing investigation.


Gumb carries around a binder several inches thick filled with paperwork she has gathered.

In considerable detail, Gumb outlined her assertions: that there is a “pay-for-play” culture at Torrey Pines; that there is a lack of transparency in how the Torrey Pines Foundation and baseball program use money collected from parents; that the Torrey Pines baseball program built batting cages without proper approval, and that students’ access of the cages has been limited at times by club teams using them; that walk-on club coaches on the coaching staff at Torrey Pines have undue influence on the selection of players in the program.

“When I first started this, I didn’t want to impede on anybody’s well-being,” Gumb said in an interview. “I don’t want anybody to lose their job. But good grief, there has to be some accountability and a line drawn. To me, it’s not that difficult. It’s a public school. There are transparency and accountability rules in place to protect the kids.”

In an era of shrinking educational budgets, schools are relying more than ever on parent and student fundraising to pay for extracurricular activities, such as band, dance and sports. Schools in mostly higher socioeconomic areas have formed foundations to better raise and manage the money.


At Torrey Pines, all sports and extracurricular activities are funded by the Torrey Pines High School Foundation, which also supports many academic endeavors at the school that U.S. News ranked this year at No. 51 among the best high schools in California and No. 302 in the nation.

The non-profit foundation is the most successful among San Diego public schools in raising money, consistently bringing in around $2 million per year, according to tax returns, when other San Dieguito district high schools raise about half as much.

In sports, parents are asked to contribute various amounts, their funds can be designated for their chosen team, and the foundation then redirects the money back into the program.

Asking for donations is legal and many high school sports programs in the county are supplemented by contributions. But it is the way in which the money is asked for that can be an issue. The California Constitution and Education Code mandate that students and their families do not have to pay for extracurricular activities and cannot be discriminated against for not contributing.


A 1984 California Supreme Court decision clarified that extracurricular activities should be considered part of a free public education.

In 2010, the American Civil Liberties Union did an investigation and identified 32 schools – many of them in San Diego – that were charging illegal fees for things such as uniforms and “spirit packs.”

The ACLU sued the state, and in a settlement reached in 2012, Gov. Jerry Brown signed into law AB1575, which required the California Department of Education to provide guidance and updates on the “free schools” guarantee to superintendents and administrators every three years starting in 2014.

The law also established a uniform parent complaint process that allows for settlements at the local level without further lawsuits.


Some schools still flirted with charging illegal fees. In 2012, University City High School in San Diego had to refund $1,500 to parents who were told by the school’s football program that they had to contribute $300 each for equipment.

The San Dieguito district states among its own policies, “Staff is expected to emphasize the fact that donations are always voluntary.”

David Loy, the legal director for the ACLU of San Diego and Imperial Counties, said simply stating that a requested fee is voluntary doesn’t always free schools of their legal responsibility.

Speaking generally and not specifically to the Torrey Pines complaint, Loy said, “Just because you drop in a footnote that this is voluntary doesn’t get you off the hook. If what you’re doing is so coercive that it’s tantamount to charging a fee, you’re violating the letter and spirit of California law.”


Loy cited a letter he wrote to one school district that wanted every student to have an iPad and asked parents for money, while the administration noted the program would not exist without families’ financial support.

“The message was: If you don’t pay up, nobody gets iPads,” Loy said. “That’s coercive.”

While the Torrey Pines baseball email, written by volunteer liaison Rex McGuire, stated that fees are voluntary, Torrey Pines High first-year principal Rob Coppo, said some of the wording concerned him.

“I would prefer to not see the line in there that says ‘bring your check book,’ ” Coppo said.


“I also understand,” he added, “that there is a fine line for those parents who really want to donate and bring in some money to create opportunities for whatever interest they might have. “

Nicole Baril, who has been the Torrey Pines Foundation’s paid executive director for 1½ years and occupies an office at the school, said she sees many of the sports programs’ “ask” emails before they go to parents, but said she didn’t see the baseball email before it was distributed.

Baril said she had no concerns about the email, other than, “Maybe I wouldn’t have underlined the check book part.

“I feel like he (McGuire) is very clear in terms of what he’s asking,” Baril said.


Baril said that asking parents for donations has become a standard practice at the school because the programs would not be funded to the same levels otherwise.

“A lot of the cost of the programs is put back on the parents,” Baril said. “In an ideal world we wouldn’t need to exist. The state and the district would fund things. When you’re in a community with parents who want extra coaching, or for their kids to participate in extra tournaments, parents get involved.”

Of the proliferation of foundations that are ceded control of large amounts of money by districts, the ACLU’s Loy said, “These are supposedly auxiliary foundations, and so the district feels like it can wash their hands of it — ‘That’s not us, it’s the foundation.’ But you can’t launder everything through the foundation. In my view (the district) is on the hook. They shouldn’t be able to wash their hands of coercive tactics.”

In one of San Diego’s wealthiest neighborhoods, Torrey Pines parents spend considerable money on their kids’ extracurricular programs. Baril said she has daughters who have participated in dance, which asked parents for donations of $1,200 for the year. Baril said the highest “ask” this year for a sport was $980 for cheerleading.


A Torrey Pines boys soccer parent, who asked not to be identified, said this year’s team members were asked to pay $500 for the season, plus $100 for bus transportation. The parent said he chose not to make a donation last year, but did so this year because his wife feared their son would be negatively impacted if they didn’t pay.

“That’s a natural parent fear,” Baril said, “but it’s unsubstantiated.”

In the district’s coaches’ handbook, it is stated that coaches may have access to profit and loss statements of the booster group, but not the activity report that may contain donor names.

Baril strongly asserted that coaches don’t have access to the financials at Torrey Pines, and thus are not making roster or playing time decisions based on parents’ donation levels.


“One thing that I’m very comfortable with is that the money that is fund-raised is spent appropriately, and it never is communicated who donates and who doesn’t,” Baril said. “I feel extremely confident that it doesn’t impact the players themselves.”

Gumb disagrees. She attended the mandatory player/parent meeting for Torrey Pines baseball in February and photographed a clipboard and paper listing each family, with check marks in columns of “paid” or “unpaid.”

“That’s why parents are operating out of fear, and that’s crazy,” Gumb said.

Baril said she was aware of Gumb’s photograph, and that it might have been a “simple mistake” by a volunteer to leave it unattended. She said there was no context to it.


“Maybe it was for another fee or for a sweatshirt,” Baril said.

The Union-Tribune requested that Baril share an itemized breakdown of the foundation’s spending on baseball. She declined, though said that parents have access to foundation financials upon request.

Gumb did not pay the $695 requested by the baseball team for this season because her son, Devin, a junior, was cut. Gumb and other baseball parents did pay a total of $790 for their boys to participate in fall and winter seasons that are not sanctioned by the high school, but led by Torrey Pines baseball coaches while feeding money into the foundation.

Baril said 51 percent of the off-season league fees go to the foundation and 49 percent to the coaches as compensation for their time.


In an email to families before the winter season, Torrey Pines head coach Kirk McCaskill wrote, “We value this opportunity and highly encourage (in bold) all players to participate.”

McCaskill, 56, is a former major league pitcher who had a 12-year career with the Angels and Chicago White Sox. His son, Bennett, is a senior and starting catcher for Torrey Pines.

The Falcons went 69-59-1 in McCaskill’s first four seasons at Torrey, and this year they are 24-6 overall and 12-2 in the Avocado West League.

McCaskill took over the Torrey Pines program in 2013 and a year later his wife, Dana McCaskill, was a member of the Torrey Pines Foundation board. That same school year of 2014, according to the foundation’s tax filing, the Torrey Pines baseball team received $110,844 from the foundation.


The foundation lists in its tax returns only those programs that get the highest allotments. Boys basketball got $204,990 in 2014 and football received $187,974.

Getting more than $100,000 in one year to run a high school baseball program would be considered an extreme luxury for most schools.

Three high school baseball coaches – Granite Hills’ James Davis, Chula Vista’s Jim Westlund and Madison’s Robert Lovato -- who were interviewed by the Union-Tribune said they have budgets, including district dollars, fundraising and corporate donations, of approximately $10,000 to $15,000 to operate their programs.

“That’s outrageous,” Westlund said of the $695 that Torrey Pines asks for from parents. “If you can justify that, good luck.”


Westlund said he suggests a donation of $30 from his families and doesn’t get 100 percent participation.

Said Davis, “Man, I think about how much easier my life would be if we had that kind of (Torrey Pines) funding.”

The Torrey Pines baseball field is one of the nicest in the county. It features a small, carpeted clubhouse built into the back of the home dugout. The hybrid Bermuda grass infield was installed in 2013, a $400,000 batting cage complex was built from a private donation in 2014, and a $70,000 scoreboard debuted in 2016.

After home games, the Falcons baseball players meticulously tend to the field, including using leaf blowers to blast away any dirt that accumulates on the dugout floor.


“Do we raise more money than other schools? We probably do – for all of our sports,” McCaskill, standing on the Torrey baseball field, said after a win on April 26. “I think it’s the natural demographics that kind of kick in here.”

Those demographics are such that the foundation is advertising parking and on-field viewing package for graduation in June. The price tag for 10 people: $5,000.

McCaskill said he presents his athletic director with a list of his needs each year, but isn’t involved any further in the financials.

The coach said he is at somewhat of a loss to explain why his program uses so much more money than others. He noted the team uses new or barely used baseballs even for batting practice. Balls are $80 per dozen.


“I want to be as transparent as possible,” said McCaskill, who noted that he had a three-hour meeting with the investigator hired by the district.

“We’re transparent. We really are. There is no undue influence, honestly. We try to do everything right. I’m not trying to dictate price or budget. Everything else, we want to do by the letter of the law. If they say change it, we’ll change it. We’ll fix it.”

One significant expense that many other schools don’t have is Torrey’s number of paid coaches, which totals seven. Their stipends amount to about $25,000 for the season.

At some schools in the county, a head varsity coach may get a $3,000 stipend and split it with his assistant or JV coach.


Torrey also spends an undetermined amount on uniforms with the players’ names on the back. A photo of new camouflage hats and jerseys with the players’ names was posted on the program’s Instagram account on Jan. 21 — one day after the official tryouts.

The post got 85 likes, including this comment: “”Sweet uniforms, names on before the tryouts.”

The new jerseys and hats went unused until May 5, when there were five games remaining in the regular season.

McCaskill said he believes the investigation is a reflection of the Gumb family’s dissatisfaction and not the program as a whole.


“The angle this woman is trying to push, that somehow you get favoritism for donations … if you go around and talk to most of the families I think they would disagree with it,” he said. “Our program, we tell everybody from the beginning that this is a meritocracy; you have to earn it. Sometimes when kids don’t earn it or don’t make the team, people want to stir it up.”

Gumb, whose request for an investigation was delivered seven weeks before her son was cut from baseball, laughed at the prospects of being labeled “the crazy parent.”

“You have these ridiculous adults in this weird chess match using these kids, and there’s no opponent,” Gumb said. “We don’t know the rules. Well, I’m competitive, and I’m going to be the opponent. I’m going to start creating some rules.”


tod.leonard@sduniontribune.com; Twitter: @sdutleonard