Superintendent: Foster pressured her on claim

San Diego school board member Marne Foster pressured Superintendent Cindy Marten to approve a $250,000 legal claim against the district, alleging that her son’s college prospects had been damaged by a poor reference, according to court records unsealed Thursday.

Marten told an investigator with the District Attorney’s Office who was investigating several allegations of wrongdoing against Foster that the school trustee told her “to do the right thing, you can make this happen” in a phone conversation in which Foster said she planned to file the legal claim.

Foster pleaded guilty on Tuesday to a single charge of violating the Political Reform Act for accepting gifts of travel and tuition for a son to attend a camp in Seattle, and not reporting that on her economic disclosure forms.

Foster agreed to resign from the board and was sentenced to three years of probation and 120 hours of community service.

A search warrant in the case was served on the San Diego Unified School District on Dec. 10, but was under seal until Thursday, when The San Diego Union-Tribune and other media outlets asked for it to be made public.

The document contained little information about the gift that resulted in the criminal charges, and focused on the claim against the district and a fundraiser Foster held for her sons’ college tuition, with district contractors and employees in attendance.

It also mentioned Foster’s enrollment in a free lunch program for her sons, who apparently didn’t qualify.

According to the document, Marten was taken aback by Foster’s pressure to approve the $250,000 claim “and responded to Foster by saying, ‘That’s weird, you are going to file a claim against the school.’”

The claim was filed in April 2014, saying a poor reference for one of Foster’s sons cost him future success at college. It was signed by John Marsh, the father of two of Foster’s children, who she was estranged from. The district denied the claim, the first step in filing a lawsuit – though no suit was ever filed.

The affidavit says Marten believed Foster was under the impression that the superintendent had the authority to approve a claim. It also says Foster “wanted the school district to pay for her son’s education” at Pace University.

When the claim was reported in 2014 by The San Diego Union-Tribune, Foster told the paper she was “not a party to that claim.” An email to the paper, purportedly from Marsh, indicated he was responsible for the claim.

The Voice of San Diego in September 2015 published a story in which Marsh stated he did not write the complaint, but signed a blank form. After the story published, Marsh contacted the District Attorney’s Office and voluntarily came in for an interview, the court documents say.

Speaking to authorities, Marsh again flatly denied filing the claim and said he didn’t “have the knowledge or the information” to file it, the affidavit says.

After the Voice of San Diego story published, Marsh said he got a phone call from Foster, telling him to retract his comments in the published story, and tell the reporter he had indeed filed the claim. He also got text messages from Sandra Foster-King, Foster’s mother.

“Protect everyone and call that man immediately and recant ur words and tell the truth: you filed those papers,” the text read.

Investigators also interview Michael Brunker, director of the Jackie Robinson YMCA, which gave a scholarship to one of Foster’s sons. Brunker said he also spoke with Foster, who he had known from before her term on the board, about the claim.

He said he pointedly asked her if she had filed it out but she never directly answered.

“Brunker stated he told Marne Foster ‘to be truthful and that she should step down and resign.’ She replied that it was about the ‘end game’ of her receiving the support of the unions and being re-elected.”

Brunker also told investigators that because of the media attention with the fundraiser, which he also attended, the YMCA had backed away from a plan that would have had the district use the group’s pool facilities.

That decision was done “to the dismay of many who had worked to develop an agreement.”