and there's more from Brockton

 ...where the assistant financial officer has now claimed whistleblower protection:

...attorney Timothy Burke has said he plans to file a whistleblower lawsuit against the city of Brockton and its school committee on [assistant financial officer Christopher] Correia’s behalf, claiming Correia sounded alarms about the district’s overspending for months.

 

From the Enterprise: 

"We cannot continue to enter into contracts that we haven't accounted for in the current budget," Correia wrote in an email to Petronio dated July 21, 2022. "Given the District's budget shortfall for FY23, we need to implement conservative spending policies in order to avoid major cuts and layoffs." 

...Throughout the 2022-2023 school year, Correia had been sounding the alarm that the district didn't have enough money for payroll and transportation expenses, and that Brockton Public Schools couldn't afford to pay the new staff hired before the year began, according to Correia's emails to both Petronio and Thomas.

"We are over staffed in Para's and there has to be people we can shift to K classrooms, instead of hiring. With the reduction in enrollment, T & Land HR need to get a handle on staffing levels … the math no longer makes sense. Let's discuss this ASAP," Correia wrote in an email to Petronio on Sept. 17, 2022.

"As I've already said, the FY23 budget cannot support an additional $2M in out of district tuitions," Correia said to Petonio in an email on Sept. 30, 2022.

...In his various emails, Correia warned that the district had overspent on its staffing and transportation contracts, which Thomas and Silva-Hodges later confirmed after the deficit became public in August.

"And lastly and what appears to be the most significant impact to the current budget shortfall, is the hiring of more than 100 in-house staff members and outside vendors/consultants/mentors that were not approved by School Committee," Correia wrote in the April 2023 "budget crisis" email. "This factor alone, is projected to cost the district an additional $7 million that was not anticipated or budgeted. There needs to be a control put in place immediately, where the Finance Office approve any new hire or outside contractor in order for that contract to be valid."

...On Aug. 6, Correia told Petronio in an email that even with the district's financial resources, there would still be at least a $12 million deficit for the fiscal year 2023 budget, which by then he had warned officials for 15 months.

"I have asked repeatedly that School Committee be informed of this crisis, but my recommendations have been ignored. I have attempted to offer suggestions and develop procedures to help curtail the deficit, but have been met with resistance by the Superintendent," Correia wrote in an email to Petonio on Aug. 6.

...Petronio informed Corriea in an email on Aug. 7 that he would schedule a meeting with Sullivan and Thomas to announce the deficit to the committee.

At the school committee's most recent meeting on Sept. 6, Sullivan told the nearly full auditorium and the roughly 500 YouTube livestream viewers that he first learned of the deficit on Aug. 8. The school committee was informed at their meeting on Aug. 15 by Petronio, who said he didn't have "any hard numbers yet," despite Correia informing him by email of an at least $12 million deficit on Aug. 6.

From the Globe:

Correia repeatedly urged school district leaders to curb spending and slow down hiring over the last 15 months and to alert the school committee to the situation, but his warnings “of an impending financial disaster” were ignored, according to Burke. After the problems came to a head last month, he was placed on leave and has been ridiculed and demeaned by local officials for his conduct, Burke said.