Can Brockton Schools hire desperately needed staff without 'crippling the whole city'?

BROCKTON — Brockton has dodged state receivership for this year after proving to state officials the city will enter fiscal year 2025 at the end of June with a balanced budget, Mayor Robert Sullivan announced at Tuesday night’s School Committee meeting.

“We did dodge, thankfully, state intervention,” Sullivan said. “We will not have a fiscal control board for this year, thank God.”

But Sullivan added, “We’re not out of the woods yet.”

After months of calculations, city business experts found ways to cut costs across many public departments in Brockton to offset a multi-million-dollar deficit in the school district’s budget from 2023.

But the school committee’s finance subcommittee, which is currently comprised of all eight members, voted to recommend a fiscal year 2025 budget proposal that’s roughly $6 million more than what city officials relayed to the state.

BPS is faced with skyrocketing costs of student transportation and special education services, and understaffed schools have led to massive class sizes. The district is desperate to hire more educators, but the city is strapped for cash and it's unclear where that funding will come from.

“We are not suggesting in any way underfunding schools. Absolutely not. We won’t,” the mayor said. “But we also have to do cost containment measures because we cannot deal next year with what we’re dealing with this year, because there will be a takeover and that’s a fact.”

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Financial control or more educators?

The long, somber debate went late into the evening on Tuesday, as committee members were split evenly between adding an extra $6 million to bring in more staff or remain frugal to save money.

Acting Superintendent James Cobbs requested over $11 million in his budget proposal to the school committee just in additional staffing alone. But given the city's financial insecurity, that figure was cut to $5.9 for only critically needed positions. Still, that additional $5.9 million wasn't included in the plan that the city brought before the state to avoid receivership.

"We dodged a bullet for a state takeover for the city of Brockton. We really did," said School Committee Vice Chair Tony Rodrigues. "I honestly don't know where the city will get that extra funding to supplement that. And then we also don't want to make a decision where we're crippling the whole city."

School and city officials didn't have an answer for where that funding will come from.

"That money is not there right now," Sullivan said. "So, we will be facing an issue next year where we bring people on, we can't sustain them, and we lay them off."

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Multiple tied votes

The School Committee voted on whether or not to recommend the budget that included the additional $6 million. Two rounds of voting ended in a deadlock, with Rodrigues, Claudio Gomes, Joyce Asack and Ana Oliver voting to approve the proposal, and the mayor, Jorge Vega, Judy Sullivan and Tim Sullivan voting against it.

"The schools have been taking the brunt when it comes to staffing," Rodrigues said.

"We do need the money," Gomes said. "We always talk about properly funding our schools, but it seems like everything else is going up except the funding."

In a third vote, Vega switched from no to yes, passing the recommended budget of $232.7 million. In one week, the board will hold a public hearing where residents can provide input on the recommendation before the committee takes its final vote.

Who makes the final decision?

Once the budget proposal is passed, it will go before the mayor and the city's business team who have the authority to slash funding in any areas before bringing the final budget before the Brockton City Council. The City Council budget hearing on Tuesday, June 18 will be fully dedicated to the BPS budget proposal.

In addition to the $232.7 million proposal for the school district's required school spending budget, the committee approved a recommendation of $18 million for its separate transportation budget, which aligns with what city officials expected and presented to the state.

Mayor Sullivan said that state officials will work closely with Brockton next year to track and record the city's spending on a quarterly basis.

This article originally appeared on The Enterprise: Brockton dodges state takeover as schools request more money for staff