Fremont Union High School District Cupertino, Fremont, Homestead, Lynbrook, Monta Vista High Schools andAdult/Community

Boards of Trustees approve overly generous benefits to themselves, which include the following: • Fully paid health benefits for trustees and their families (often exceeding those of teachers and/or with no payment ceiling) • Excessive travel and conference costs • Pension contribution The Fremont Union High School District respectfully disagrees with thefinding. It is difficult for school districts to attract competent and dedicated candidates for the challenging and highly scrutinized role of Trustee. Since Trustee stipends are and will remain low, benefits contributions are among the only avenues available to attract and keep qualified candidates. Most Trustee members provide countless volunteer hours beyond the time dedicated to Board meetings and office events. The Fremont Union High School District Board of Trustees already has agreed to reduce and virtually eliminate all travel and conference costs except when such costs are significant benefits to the districts. Bullet point three is not applicable to the Fremont Union High School District Trustees since they do not receive pension contributions. BOARDOFTRUSTEES:Nancy A. Newton, Barbara F.Nunes, Homer H.e.Tong, Hung Wei, Bill Wilson 589 West Fremont Avenue (408) 522-2200 Post Office Box F FAX (408) 245-5325 Sunnyvale, CA 94087 AN EQUAL OPPORTUNITY EMPLOYER http://www.fuhsd.org/ September 24, 2009

Boards of Trustees are approving overly generous benefits to Superintendents and Chancellors, including the following: • Auto allowances (auto leases/purchases, insurance, maintenance, etc.) • Housing allowances • Million dollar housing loans at zero or below market interest rates • Guaranteed annual step and/or longevity increases • Signing bonuses • Contract buy-outs • Excessive performance bonuses • Per diem payments when out of the district • Personal technology allowances • Professional memberships and subscription allowances • Excessive travel and entertainment expenses • Salary increases automatically triggered by increases in teacher's salaries which are in addition to other guaranteed salary increases • Pension allowances (in addition to regular STRS/PERS contributions) September 24, 2009 • Advanced degree stipends • Lifetime medical insurance benefits • Annual physicals The Fremont Union High School District respectfully disagrees with thisfinding with respect to their Superintendent's compensation. The Superintendent does not receive an auto allowance, a housing allowance, a housing loan, a signing bonus, aperformance bonus, per diem payments when out of the District, apersonal technology allowance, or a salary increase automatically triggered by teacher's salary increases, pension allowance in addition toSTRS, lifetime medical insurance benefits, or coverage for annual physicals. The Superintendent ispaid using a salary schedule where the annual increments match the annual step increase of the teachers' and other administrators' salary schedules. The longevity and advanced degree stipends also match those of all administrators in the District. The contractual buy out clause mirrors what Ed Code allows. Travel, membership and subscription allowances are limited and monitored by the Board. The Superintendent does receive a health care stipend of $400 dollars per month. This is the same stipend that isgiven to all District administrators and does not cover the cost of the PERS healthcare plan. At the Fremont Union High School District, top leadership costs represent less than one-fifth of onepercent of the office's total annual budget of$199 million. The high cost of living in the area, coupled with extreme demands and pressures of theposition, have created a market inwhich compensation packages offering certain compensation are viewed as a necessity.

Superintendent salaries and increases appear to bear no relationship to the number of schools, students, and employees they oversee, nor their district's academic improvement. The District respectfully disagrees with Finding 3. Fremont Union High School District's Superintendent oversees an annual budget that is over $199 million, five large high schools, over 1,000 employees, over 10,000 high school students and 38,000 adult school students. The Superintendent's salary is related to the size of the district, and that is only one of manyfactors that determine compensation. Response to Grand Jury September 24, 2009

Boards of Trustees hire costly search firms to recruit successors for retiring or dismissed Superintendents/Chancellors. Hiring a Superintendent for a school district is one of the most important and complex tasks a Board of Trustees undertakes. While there are costs involved in using searchfirms, these amounts are small when one considers the stakes involved and thefact that Superintendents are often in their positions for many years. Board members are typically inexperienced inSuperintendent searches, and the existing staff of a school district are not always bestpositioned to recruit and employ their supervisor. However, the use of search firms depends upon theparticular circumstances and timing of the hiring. There are times when an appropriate and highly qualified individual can befound within the District as well as times when looking outside the District is necessary.

Boards of Trustees approve the hiring of multiple private attorneys, in some cases at a tremendous expense. The Fremont Union High School District respectfully disagrees with thisfindingfor the reasons outlined below in the response to Recommendation 5.

The operation of 34 K-12 school districts and four community college districts creates excessively high management and administrative costs. Five K-12 school districts have excessively high Superintendent costs per student which is reflective of the districts having only one or two schools. The Fremont Union High School District believes that it is not inaposition tojudge the districts identified and is respectfully unable to agree or disagree with thisfinding. September 24, 2009