Grant plans staffer buyout

The Grant Joint Union High School District is preparing to give $2.5 million in severance packages to 14 managers who are choosing not to work for the new K-12 school system that's replacing Grant.

The buyout plan has opened old rifts between Grant and the Rio Linda, Del Paso Heights and North Sacramento elementary districts, which are joining to form the Twin Rivers Unified School District under a plan voters approved in November.

Twin Rivers officials – who come from the elementary districts involved in the merger – say they do not want Grant to buy out employees because they want them to work for the new district.

They worry that the $2.5 million Grant is spending on severance packages will hurt Twin Rivers' bottom line – it's money that won't become part of the new district's budget.

Grant officials say they have not been invited to apply for jobs with the new district, which will start operating on July 1.

They say the point of the merger was to streamline bureaucracy, and that by buying employees out they are saving Twin Rivers the cost of keeping them on the payroll.

"We're hearing the need to reduce, the need to reduce, the need to reduce. That is the recurring theme," Grant lawyer Jacques Whitfield said.

"By offering that severance, that is a cost that does not roll over to the new district, so that becomes a cost savings to the new district."

Twin Rivers leaders say, for now, they need all the help they can get, and paring down school district administration should be a long-term goal.

"We need people to get the work done. I'm looking at a ton of things we have to do to merge these districts," said Twin Rivers Associate Superintendent Rob Ball, who used to work for the Rio Linda district.

"Twin Rivers will feel the loss of those Grant employees."

Merging the four districts' financial systems, transportation programs and employee contracts requires familiarity with the old way of doing things, he said.

And Twin Rivers will be unable to hire Grant leaders who take the buyout because – in order to avoid double-dipping – the deal requires they agree not to work for the new district.

But Twin Rivers may end up hiring people to fill some of the positions left vacant by Grant, Ball said. That would mean Grant's severance plan would cost taxpayers twice – once when Grant buys out the employees, a second time when Twin Rivers hires replacements.

Whitfield said Grant's plan would save Twin Rivers money. The laws governing school district mergers require a new district to keep all workers from the old districts for at least two years.

Grant's severance packages pay the 14 workers one year to 1.5 years' salary, depending on the length of their contracts.

Many Grant leaders are interested in taking the buyout and pursuing other opportunities because they feel snubbed by Twin Rivers, Whitfield said. No one from Grant has been hired or elected to run the new combined district. Voters chose a school board that consists mostly of trustees of the elementary districts, and all the administrators the board has hired come from those three elementary districts.

The Grant board approved the concept of management severance packages in December. On Wednesday, Grant's board will be asked to approve a detailed plan for the administrators interested in buyouts.

Fourteen of about 20 of Grant's top-level managers chose the severance package over a job with Twin Rivers, Whitfield said. They include Whitfield, Superintendent Pat Newsome, four assistant superintendents, seven directors and the chief of school police.

Their annual salaries range from $104,285 to $171,708 and their severance payments go as high as $257,562.

The elementary districts participating in the merger are not offering buyouts to any of their employees, leaders of those districts said.

"We are definitely encouraging our employees to be a part of the new Twin Rivers," said Del Paso Heights Superintendent Ramona Bishop, who is also working as an interim associate superintendent with Twin Rivers.

"We're unifying and merging our efforts, and merging our talents as well."

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