Fresno Unified was recently the subject of a grand jury probe, and while the query prompted some recommendations, it also shed light on some controversy surrounding district payouts.
In a report released earlier this month, the Fresno County Civil Grand Jury said it was prompted to investigate a complaint regarding the school district’s payments to “a non-certified, non-union employee(s) upon their resignation.”
Per Fresno Unified policy, the Director of Human Resources can authorize payments of up to $100,000 to non-union employees upon resignation.
Anything above this amount — such as the $162,000 severance payment made to former communications chief Nikki Henry last year — needs to be approved by the board.
In accordance with the Brown Act, this action may be taken during closed session, the grand jury noted in the report.
“In the course of its interviews, the Grand Jury determined that the Board of Education followed the correct procedure in the specific instance that triggered the initial investigation,” the jury said of Fresno Unified.
When news broke of Henry’s severance payment — which followed her resignation on the heels of an AI-related controversy in May 2025 — the Fresno Teachers Association blasted the decision.
“We believe that this settlement will send a message to FUSD employees and the broader community: accountability is not applied equally. When frontline employees make mistakes, they often face swift consequences. But when high-ranking administrators break trust — even after serious misconduct — they appear to be rewarded with six-figure settlements,” the teachers union said in a Facebook post last July.
Trustee Susan Wittrup also decried the decision.
“This district is run with public money. You cannot keep this information from the public,” Wittrup said, per GV Wire. “Those are all Brown Act violations.”
Wittrup also told the outlet (owned by her longtime partner, Darius Assemi) that she learned of the deal’s finalization through the media and accused the district of shutting the board out of making the decision.
The grand jury, while dismissing the Brown Act violation claim, said other factors may have exacerbated the district’s unspecified payout situation.
“Outdated job descriptions and a lack of continuity and consistency in its personnel evaluations timeline and process may have contributed to this payout,” the report reads.
In response, the district said many of the points outlined in the report are being focused on through new goals.
“Fresno Unified has begun implementing efforts to strengthen employee evaluation practices, improve consistency in supervisor training, update job descriptions, and reinforce expectations for timely, meaningful, and consistent performance evaluations across employee groups,” spokesperson A.J. Kato said in a statement.
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Nick Fenley is a reporter covering education, lawsuits, breaking news and more for The Fresno Bee. He’s originally from the Imperial Valley and has been with The Bee since 2025.