SEP 2 5 2009 Don Kawashima, Foreperson David H. YAMASAKI,Chief Executive Officer/Clark

Recommendations 6

• R1
  Boards of Trustees should carefully review the benefits listed in Finding 1and: • Eliminate health benefits for Board Members .• Minimize travel and conference costs • Eliminate pension contributions Response: Sunnyvale School District (SSD) has not provided District paid health and welfare benefits for school board members since the early 1990s. Board members have the option to purchase health benefits at their own expense through the District's group plans. Travel and conference costs paid by the District for school board members are minimal. There is typically only one annual conference (California School Board Association's Annual Conference (CSBA) attended by most board members and occasionally board members attend other workshop/training sessions also sponsored by CSBA. CSBA provides professional development training on board member roles and responsibilities, educational policy and legal issues, and other current topics related to public education advocacy. SSD does not contribute to pensions for board members.
• R2
  Boards of Trustees should carefully review and renegotiate the Superintendent/Chancellor benefits listed in Finding 2for possible reduction and/or elimination. Response: The superintendent's job is demanding and the responsibilities are large and superintendent salaries are driven by competition and the market. The Sunnyvale School District superintendent's contract has recently been negotiated and prepared by district legal counsel in accordance with Education Code and approved by the Board of Education. The contract provides total compensation that is competitive and reflective of prevailing practices, but not excessive. The Sunnyvale School District superintendent's contract does not provide many of the items listed by the Grand Jury such as: housing allowances, housing loans, signing bonus, performance bonuses, per diem payments when out of the district, excessive travel and entertainment expenses, salary increases triggered by increases to teacher salaries, pension allowances in addition to PERS, advanced degree stipend, lifetime medical insurance benefits and district paid annual physical.
• R3
  The Board of Trustees should ensure that Superintendent/Chancellor salaries and increases take into account the number ofschools, teachers, and students they oversee, and are tied to the district's students' progress and quantifiable metrics. Response: Sunnyvale School District provides atotal compensation package to the superintendent that is competitive and reflective of prevailing practices among Santa Clara County and California school districts of similar size. The superintendent is held responsible for an array of general, personnel and administrative functions defined within the contract. Also by contract the Board of Education holds the superintendent accountable to manage the district consistent with the approved policies which establish what the Board expects the schools to accomplish.
• R4
  Boards of Trustees should conduct apreliminary search within the local area prior to hiring search firms. Response: There is awell-documented shortage of well-qualified candidates for superintendent positions. Many of the specialized search firms provide an effective recruiting, vetting and selection process and service that may be beyond the scope and capacity of the local school district to provide. When a superintendent vacancy occurs it isthe goal of the Board of Education to select the best qualified candidate from the largest and most talented pool of candidates possible. 2 9/21/2009 Sunnyvale School District
• R5
  All Boards of Trustees should engage County Counsel whenever possible and leverage their buying power to negotiate lower fees with private law firms. Response: School districts often are involved in complex legal issues requiring specialized expertise and considerable legal capacity and resources. Sunnyvale School District annually reviews its legal service contract for quality of service and cost in order to ensure maintaining a balance of high quality and cost effective legal counsel representation.
• R6
  A consolidation of districts should be considered to reduce the numbers and costs of Superintendents/Chancellors, Boards of Trustees, administrative staff and overhead. Response: Consolidation may provide an economy of scale and reduce overhead expense. However, consolidation of schools is a complex process and would require a thorough and thoughtful study and the involvement and support of the many stakeholders representing the affected school districts, cities and Santa Clara County. The benefits of the economies of scale would have to be weighed against a preference for local control of school districts and a tendency among the public to favor smaller districts. The Santa Clara County Office of Education currently offers many centralized services, such as, alternative schools, special education, finance and technology services. These centralized services reduce duplication of effort and overhead operating expense for school districts.