'I'm confused': Brockton bills schools $400,000 for city's probe into school deficit

BROCKTON — Brockton Public Schools was billed more than $400,000 for the city's legal investigation into the school district's $18 million budget deficit in fiscal year 2023, school committee members said at their meeting Tuesday evening.

Ward 2 Brockton School Committee member Claudio Gomes announced at the meeting that the school district received a bill from the audit firm overseeing the city's investigation, which was launched shortly after the multi-million dollar budget shortfall was brought to light in August 2023.

While BPS has been conducting its own internal investigation into the budget mishap, led by audit firm RSM US , the city of Brockton's legal department has been working on a separate investigation simultaneously.

"It wasn't supposed to have anything to do with the school district," said Gomes. "The city was supposed to cover it."

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According to Gomes, BPS received the bill in June and the total was "over $400,000."

"BPS was actually charged for that investigation and I'm confused right now as to why," he said. "We did not approve this."

Brockton Mayor Robert F. Sullivan, who serves as the School Committee chair, said the board couldn't discuss the issue further Tuesday night since it wasn't on the pre-planned agenda and staff from both the city and school district with knowledge of the bill weren't present to answer questions.

"It's not ripe for discussion tonight, I will tell you that, because it's not on the agenda," Sullivan said. "I'm not trying to be a jerk but it's not ripe for conversation tonight .... The information is not on the agenda tonight so we should not be talking about it tonight."

Committee will discuss bill Sept. 4

The school committee plans to continue the discussion regarding the bill at its next regular meeting on Wednesday, Sept. 4, and several city and school officials will be invited to speak on the issue including the city's Chief Financial Officer Troy Clarkson, BPS Interim Business Administrator Trish Boyer and former Acting Superintendent James Cobbs.

Several committee members seemed agitated by the news and requested to see the invoice prior to the next meeting to analyze how the money was spent.

Gomes said the school department's audit "came out at a much, much lower rate than what we're paying for this city-side investigation."

This article originally appeared on The Enterprise: 'I'm confused': Brockton bills schools $400,000 for city's probe into school deficit