Fresno Unified paid out a half billion dollars to workers in 2018. See what they make

The Fresno Unified School District, the fourth largest school district in California, doled out more than $555.5 million in paychecks to its thousands of employees, from teachers and administrators to custodians and tutors, in 2018.

Benefits for those employees, including pension contributions and the district’s share of health, dental and vision insurance costs, added up to another $222.4 million. Together, wages and benefits brought Fresno Unified’s total costs for compensation of its employees to nearly $778 million last year.

Data provided by the district this month under a California Public Records Act request from The Bee covers 15,436 people who received pay from Fresno Unified last year, including more than 4,200 teachers in its elementary, middle and high schools.

The addition of Fresno Unified brings to more than 88,000 the number of local government employees – from cities, counties, community colleges and selected school districts in Fresno, Kings, Madera and Tulare counties – whose salaries and compensation are included in the database.

Fresno Unified’s 4,225 teachers received a total of $299.2 million in wages in 2018, which works out to an average of more than $70,800 per person, not including benefits.

Compensation information for every Fresno Unified employee who received pay last year is included in The Bee’s searchable database of Valleywide public employee compensation.

Select an agency from the dropdown menu below, then search by department, employee name, or job titles as provided by each agency listed. Results are limited to 250 for each search.

The district’s top administrator, Superintendent Bob Nelson, was Fresno Unified’s highest-paid employee, earning total wages of $312,381. Benefits of just over $64,000 brought Nelson’s total compensation package to more than $376,000 – tops among administrators for the Valley’s largest school districts, county offices of education and community college districts.

A cadre of 10 deputy, assistant and associate superintendents under Nelson collectively received almost $1.9 million in wages – an average of more than $187,700 each – and a combined $474,000 in benefits.

This story was originally published July 17, 2019 at 3:00 AM.

Tim Sheehan

The Fresno Bee

559-441-6319

Lifelong Valley resident Tim Sheehan has worked as a reporter and editor in the region since 1986, and has been with The Fresno Bee since 1998. He is currently The Bee’s data reporter and also covers California’s high-speed rail project and other transportation issues. He grew up in Madera, has a journalism degree from Fresno State and a master’s degree in leadership studies from Fresno Pacific University. Support my work with a digital subscription