FRESNO, Cal. – Parents and taxpayers in the Fresno, California school district were probably not surprised when they read the headline in their local newspaper last June:

“Nation’s report card is in, and Fresno Unified is nearly rock bottom.”

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This was hardly anything new. Poor academic results have been the norm in the Fresno district for a very long time. The news report basically said that nothing much had changed.

Fresno’s fourth- and eighth-graders scored among the lowest in the nation in reading in math among large school districts.

“Only 14 percent of fourth-graders and 12 percent of eighth-graders were proficient or advanced in math. And just 13 percent of fourth- and eighth-graders were proficient or advanced in reading,” the Fresno Bee reported.

“The eighth-grade reading assessment was a disaster – there’s no other word for it. Fresno readers at that grade level were the worst in the nation among public school students in large cities, and performed below what they had in 2013.”

But some Fresno residents might be surprised to know the amount of money the people who have been running the district make per year.

To put it bluntly, a lot of district administrators have been making a great deal to preside over failure.

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The man ultimately responsible for the district’s academic performance, former Superintendent Michael Hanson, had a much better year than the students in fiscal 2016-17.

Hanson was paid a base salary of $309,079, “other pay” that totaled $24,100, benefits worth $31,577, and health, dental and vision coverage worth a combined $16,016.

In total, Hansen’s compensation came to $381,016.

Then there was Chief Academic Officer Patricia Mecum, who made a base salary of $225,685, “other pay” of $5,220, benefits worth $26,688, and health, dental and vision coverage worth $16,260. That all added up to $273,853.

Chief Financial Officer Ruth Quinto received a base salary of $218,427, benefits worth $28,961, and health, dental and vision coverage worth $16,260. That totaled $263,648.

Those three employees put together cost the Fresno school district at least $918,517 in fiscal 2016-17.

While Hanson, Mecum and Quinto certainly raked in the bucks, they were far from the only district officials who were paid very well.

A total of 229 Fresno school administrators (including the top three) were paid a combined $26,852,491 in base salary, for an average of  $117,259.79. They received $3,337,579 worth of benefits, for an average of $14,574.58.

With everything added up, the average compensation for the administrators responsible for the mess came to $131,834.37.

That’s pretty generous pay for the results this group produced.