FRESNO, Calif. – Top executives are ultimately responsible for the finished product.

That begs a few questions about the Fresno, California school district:

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Do Fresno taxpayers know how much top administrators in their district are paid per year? And do they know how badly their students have been performing academically?

Has anyone mentioned the possibility of holding the extremely well compensated administrators accountable for the negative student outcomes?

And if not, why not?

The 10 highest paid employees in the Fresno district in 2014-15 were all administrators, and they made a boatload of money.

The top earner, Superintendent Michael Hanson, was paid $300,616 in straight salary, plus $124,000 in “other payments” and $36,234 worth of benefits.

His total pay with benefits was an astounding $460,890. A lot of superintendents in excellent academic districts don’t make that kind of money.

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The rest of the top 10 were Deputy Superintendent Ruth Quinto, whose total compensation was $250,014, Associate Superintendent Patricia Mecum ($230,099), Associate Superintendent Rosario Sanchez ($201,434), Chief Executive Paul Idsvoog ($197,051), Instructional Superintendent Kathryn Russell ($185,842), Chief Academic Officer Michelle Steagall ($180,073), Chief Operating Officer Karin Temple ($178,543), Chief Technology Officer Kurt Madden ($177,101) and Assistant Superintendent Julie Severns ($170,033).

These 10 employees earned a combined salary of $1.7 million in 2013-14, along with $144,425 in “other pay,” $326,402 in benefits and $2.2 million in total compensation.

While that’s a great deal of money for 10 administrators, they were hardly the only ones in the district that made out well on pay days.

A total of 1,083 district employees made at least $100,000 in compensation in 2013-14. They were paid a collective amount of $90.8 million in straight salary and $23.9 million in benefits.

Benefits in the district are very generous, indeed. All but two of the 1,083 employees who were compensated six figures had benefit packages worth at least $20,000.

So all of this money goes out in salary and other forms of compensation, and what does it purchase for the taxpayers of Fresno? A bunch of students are struggling badly in the classroom.

In English language/literacy test scores in 2014-15, the percentage of Fresno students meeting or exceeding standards was far short of the state average in all eight categories – third through eighth grade, 11^th grade and all participating grades combined.

The same was true in all eight categories in math.

The percentage of Fresno students who made the grade not only lagged behind the state average – they were far behind, across the board. Fresno trailed the state average by at least 10 percent in all 16 categories

For instance, only 27 percent of all Fresno test-takers met or exceeded standards in English, compared to an average of 54 percent statewide.

Only 15 percent of Fresno eighth-graders met or exceeded standards in math, compared to 33 percent statewide. Only 18 percent of Fresno fourth-graders met the mark in math, compared to 35 percent statewide.

It’s pretty clear that taxpayers in the Fresno school district should closely inspect how much they are paying to who, and for what.