Brockton schools could publicly release daily budget spending info for 2023-24

BROCKTON - Acting Superintendent of Schools James Cobbs and the city's Chief Financial Officer Troy Clarkson say they have largely taken charge of the school district's finances over the last month since the schools' CFO Aldo Petronio and Assistant CFO Chris Correia were put on leave in response to the $14.4 million budget deficit.

While Brockton Public Schools searches for an interim chief financial officer, Cobbs and Clarkson have been given greater responsibility over the school district's budget to make sure its finances are stable amid the investigation into last fiscal year's overspending.

“The overarching process that we’re trying to implement here is to have a really good handle on what the spending is on a regular basis," Clarkson said at a Brockton School Committee meeting held on Sept. 14. Clarkson will provide updates on the state of the school district's budget at every school committee meeting until the CFO position is filled.

Clarkson confirmed at the Sept. 14 meeting that all of the school district's bills are being paid on time.

"We're being more cautious, more deliberate," he said.

According to Clarkson, at least one person is interested in the interim position, but until someone is hired, he and Cobbs have enacted some "pretty significant cost containment measures."

For now, Cobbs will have control over the open positions within the district and will be the final say for all new hires. Cobbs must receive certification from Clarkson or the city's financial team that the district has enough money before signing contracts with new staff or vendors.

"He will be the final say on filling positions," Clarkson said.

Also, the state's Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) will send financial experts to support the district in overwatching its 2023-24 school year budget.

With Clarkson's aid, Brockton Public Schools has started using a software called Munis - the same software the City of Brockton uses - to closely track its budget sending in the new school year. Clarkson said Munis is the most widely used software for public bodies across the state to track their finances.

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The district's fiscal year 2024 budget contains roughly $229 million, and Munis tracks spending on a daily basis and shows what percent of the budget has been spent for various categories from teacher salaries to janitorial supplies across each school building.

“What we are doing is actually taking that report down to a very granular level so that we will be able to tell you on a daily, weekly, monthly basis the spending not only in the categories … but by school,” Clarkson said.

What's the status of Brockton Public Schools' FY24 budget?

In order to stay on track for spending the approved amount of money for this fiscal year, which began on July 1, the school district can spend roughly 8.3% of its total budget every month, meaning that by the end of August the district should have spent around 16.7% of its budget.

As of the school committee's meeting on Sept. 14, down to that afternoon, 18.57% has been spent of this year's total budget.

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“What that tells us is that as of today, should you have spent to the penny on the FY24 budget, you should be a little less than 21% expended,” Clarkson told the committee at the meeting.

“We are spending below the number that will take you right to the amount that’s been approved,” he said.

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According to Clarkson, some areas of the budget have already been 100% spent because the city pays for some services entirely up front at the start of the school year - called encumbered money - such as the district's energy bills, legal services, telephone bills and other routine expenses.

The city does this “for purposes of making sure the money is there for the whole year … setting aside sufficient funds,” Clarkson said.

Will the spending be made public?

The budget data in Munis can be automatically placed in a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet to be exported and printed out, and Brockton School Committee member Tony Rodrigues said at the meeting he hopes those spreadsheets can be available for the public to view.

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"We most certainly can find a way to make this information available to the public because it is public information," Clarkson said.

Clarkson said the spreadsheets can be posted on Brockton Public Schools' website so the community can easily see how much the district has spent on a monthly, weekly or daily basis, depending on how often the committee chooses to update the data posted online.

The information in Munis only reflects the current year's budget, and data for the fiscal year 2023 budget - which Brockton Mayor Robert Sullivan announced on Aug. 31 had been overspent by $14.4 million primarily on staffing, transportation and security costs - isn't yet available.

“This is what I was asking for. The whole body was asking to see this, and we were told it couldn’t be done," Rodrigues said. “I’m just in awe that what I’ve been asking for for almost two years is sitting in front of me right now."

Enterprise staff writer Christopher Butler can be reached at cbutler@enterprisenews.com.

This article originally appeared on The Enterprise: Brockton CFO says school district's FY24 bills are being paid on time