Former Poway Superintendent John Collins is facing felony charges for allegedly misappropriating public money and filing a false financial disclosure form.

A complaint filed by the San Diego District Attorney on Friday listed five felony counts against Collins. Those include charges that he misused vacation, sick and leave time, illegally used a district purchasing card, and lied on a state financial disclosure form, during the period between January 12, 2012, and April 1, 2016.

If convicted on all those counts, Collins, 63, could face up to seven years and eight months in local prison, Steve Walker, spokesman for the district attorney’s office wrote in an email. Collins was notified of the charges through a letter, and will be arraigned Thursday in San Diego Superior Court, Walker said.

Neither Collins nor his attorney Paul Pfingst could be reached for comment Tuesday. Poway school officials also declined to comment on the criminal charges.


School board president Michelle O’Connor-Ratcliff said its unclear how the criminal charges will play into an ongoing civil case the district filed against Collins last year.

“I don’t know how the criminal charges will affect the civil suit, if at all,” she said, adding that the board has turned its focus back to educational goals under new Superintendent Marian Kim-Phelps.

Collins was fired in July 2016 after a forensic audit of his pay concluded that he collected more than $345,000 in unauthorized pay over the last several years and then tried to thwart an investigation into his compensation. The audit raised accusations that Collins padded his salary by collecting unauthorized vacation payouts, taking off-the-books vacation days, receiving unearned raises and accruing longevity pay far in excess of what his contract allowed.

At the time he was fired, Collins was the highest paid school superintendent in the county, earning $308,900 per year, with total compensation of $457,347 including extra pay, benefits and retirement. But texts and documents showed that he faced personal money woes so severe that he sometimes had trouble paying bills and had to sell his house after a threat of foreclosure.


The district filed a civil suit against him last year to recover the money. But hearings on the case were repeatedly postponed, as Collins faced a criminal investigation, and attempted to settle the civil charges through mediation with the district.

In January, Collins revealed in court filings that the San Diego District Attorney’s Office was looking into criminal complaints against him, and asked the court to stay the civil case until the criminal investigation was finished. In April, he entered mediation with the district, but a month later, disclosed in court documents that they did not reach a settlement. The most recent case conference, on July 28, was also continued.


deborah.brennan@sduniontribune.com Twitter@deborahsbrennan