SACRAMENTO, Calif. – Numerous California school administrators are enjoying massive salary and benefit packages, as well as other very expensive employment perks, according to the San Francisco Chronicle’s analysis of a state database of public employees.

And some of the highest paid school officials in the state earned their top spots as a result of severance packages that include lifetime health benefits, interest free home loans, and other unnecessary provisions.

At the top of the pay list is Kari McVeigh, a former superintendent for New Haven Unified School District in Union City, who took home more than $600,000 last year. Palo Alto Unified School District Superintendent Glenn “Max” McGee’s contract awards him $295,000 in pay, a $1 million interest-free home loan, a $9,000 per year car allowance, and $6,000 per year for life insurance coverage to oversee a district with 12,400 students, according to the news site.

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“Something is broken here,” Jon Coupal, president of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association, told SFGate.com. “Some of these perks may be common in California, but it’s perplexing to the average taxpayers. … I think we are at a tipping point where there will be a backlash among taxpayers and parents over the way things are run in schools.”

It’s certainly easy to see why.

The news site used an anonymous salary database released by the state Controller’s Office to track down the California’s top-paid school officials, and learned many of the educators at the top of the list were paid the most because they were fired, and received very generous severances.

McVeigh, for example, “made $630,000 in wages, benefits and severance pay in 2013 after the district fired her and paid out 18 months of her contract, which was to expire in three years,” according to SFGate.com.

The former superintendent in now embroiled in a legal battle with the 12,600 student New Haven Unified district over allegations she was fired for her objections to race-based hiring practices. She told the news site she retired before the board could fire her and is entitled to lifetime health and dental benefits for herself and her spouse.

There are numerous other similar examples, and it seems that the size of the school district has little correlation to the salaries of top officials.

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“Saratoga Union Elementary School District, which has 2,100 students, paid its superintendent Lane Weiss $317,000 in wages and benefits last year, which included a $48,000 a year housing allowance that the superintendent said has since ended,” SF Gate reports.

“Weiss’ pay was nearly as much as San Francisco Unified paid its superintendent Richard Carranza, who oversees 58,000 students. Carranza’s contract includes $500-a-month car allowance and $20,000 a year housing allowance, bringing his total pay in salary, perks and health benefits to $319,000.”

The new database was initially born in 2010 after an investigation showed salaries in the city of Bell in Los Angeles County were criminally inflated, which “raised questions about how government employees making so much could go unnoticed,” the news site reports.

“You can go to our website and get the information and start asking questions,” State Controller John Chiang said. “If someone is making something they see is an outlier that should be further investigated, we want to encourage that practice.”

That’s essentially what happened to Centinela Valley Union High School District in Los Angeles County, where superintendent Jose Fernandez’ $750,000 compensation package drew public outrage. The board fired the superintendent when the public complained and an audit revealed Fernandez had received over a half million dollars in overpayments, the news site reports.

Fernandez’s pay package also included a $910,000 home loan with 2 percent interest, and other contract perks.

“People are very interested in this information,” said Mark Bucher, president of the California Policy Center, a California think tank that also used the controller data to match salary and pension information with the names of school officials on its site, TransparentCalifornia.com.

“People want to know how their money is spent,” Bucher said. “They have a right to know.”