Grant buyouts on hold

The Grant school board put on hold a plan to give $2.5 million in severance packages to 14 administrators after being told that the buyouts could be illegal.

Trustees of the Grant Joint Union High School District were scheduled to vote on the buyouts Wednesday night but delayed their decision after the head of schools for Sacramento County sent a long list of questions and concerns. County Superintendent David Gordon is studying whether Grant's plan was developed by administrators who stand to benefit from it and whether it wastes public money.

The delay gives Grant leaders time to discuss the issues with county education officials and leaders of the new district that soon will replace Grant, said Jacques Whitfield, Grant's attorney and one of the administrators who would receive a buyout as part of the plan.

"We have not had an opportunity to meet with them," Whitfield said. "Until that time, the matters are still pending."

Grant's plan to give 12 to 18 months of severance pay to 14 top administrators stems from the upcoming merger of Grant and three of its feeder elementary districts: Del Paso Heights, North Sacramento and Rio Linda. The four districts will merge July 1 to become the Twin Rivers Unified School District.

Grant leaders say they're doing the new district a favor – the 14 managers they want to give severance packages to will not be on Twin Rivers' payroll, saving the new district ongoing costs. But Twin Rivers officials say they don't want Grant to buy out the employees – they say they need all the help they can get in starting the district, and they want the $2.5 million Grant otherwise would spend on the buyouts.

Grant employees blasted the school board Wednesday for even considering the plan.

"All I can say is shame, shame, shame," said Chuck Denonn, a math teacher at Highlands Academy. "Let the new district decide how to deal with these individuals."

Mary Elizabeth, a teacher at Grant High, said she didn't understand why administrators who were resigning would get severance pay.

"I feel it is absolutely reprehensible to give someone who chooses to leave their job of their own volition a package of this magnitude," she said.

Gordon, the county superintendent who oversees school district finances, said he was glad the board put off a vote on the severance packages. He wants Grant and Twin Rivers to devise a plan to reduce management that benefits both districts.

In the meantime, Gordon said he will not release funds to pay for any severance packages until Grant can verify that its plan is legal and fiscally sound.

"Unless and until our questions are answered … we're going to do whatever we can not to pay out money that shouldn't be paid out," Gordon said. "The public and the taxpayers should expect that of us."

Gordon sent a letter Tuesday to Grant Superintendent Pat Newsome and Grant school board President Annette Emery detailing his concerns about the district's buyout plan. He raised numerous questions about the plan's substance and Grant's process for coming up with it. Among his concerns:

• Whether the Grant school board acted illegally in crafting the plan during a closed meeting, instead of an open one.

• Whether the plan involves a conflict of interest if it was crafted by Grant managers who stand to benefit from the buyouts.

• Whether the plan wastes taxpayer money by buying out Grant administrators who will need to be replaced in the new district and by offering buyouts to employees who simply could be laid off or reassigned to other jobs at no extra expense.

• Whether the buyout packages are illegally bloated to include pay for numerous benefits instead of for salary alone.

Late Wednesday, the Grant district responded to Gordon's letter with a letter of its own. Grant's letter says the board acted properly in crafting the buyout plan in a closed meeting in December. But even if the board hadn't followed open meeting laws, the letter says the vote that had been scheduled for Wednesday's open meeting would negate any prior impropriety.

The letter also says the buyout plan does not involve any conflicts of interest because the board directed an employee who is not involved and an outside legal firm to provide the details.

"No employees who are subject to the management reduction plan played any role in its development and planning," says the letter from Emery, the Grant school board president.

Board member Patrick Kemp said Wednesday night that the buyouts amounted to a public investment because they would save Twin Rivers money in the future. He emphasized that the school board had done everything on the up and up.

"There was nothing hidden here," he said.

About the writer:

• Call The Bee's Laurel Rosenhall, (916) 321-1083.