'After exhausting all other options' Brockton lays off 130 teachers as enrollment plummets

BROCKTON — Brockton Public Schools Superintendent Mike Thomas announced Monday that 130 certified staff members will be laid off as the district faces an $18 million budget deficit.

"Since the start of the pandemic, the district's enrollment dropped by nearly 1,350 students," Thomas said in the statement. "After exhausting all other options and facing an $18 million deficit, the district was required to send reduction in force notices today which will result in the elimination of 130 certified staff positions. Additional notifications will be distributed to non-certified staff members in the coming days."

The layoffs and financial shortfall come as student enrollment in BPS has dropped drastically over the past several years, causing less money to be allocated to BPS and, specifically, toward teacher salaries.

"It's not so much laying off because we don't have the money. It's more the fact that our enrollment is reducing, and it's not reducing by a little bit," said Aldo Petronio, BPS' chief financial officer, at a school finance subcommittee meeting on May 2.

At the meeting, Petronio said that students are bleeding from BPS and enrolling in private, Catholic or charter schools. State funding has increased for local charter schools while the BPS budget has reduced due to the shifting enrollment, Petronio said.

Staff salaries are a "restricted" component of BPS' budget, Petronio said, so the district can only use a set amount of money to pay its teachers based on the amount of students.

"As you reduce the number of students, you have to reduce your staff. There's no way to offset that," Petronio said. "It's an unfortunate fact."

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The BPS student body has shrunk by over 350 students between the 2021-22 and 2022-23 school years — which Petronio also attributes to rising housing and rent costs in Brockton. As the housing market soars, families are moving to cheaper towns outside of Brockton.

"While we are confident that our five-year district improvement process will encourage new families to move to Brockton, unfortunately our current enrollment does not support existing staffing levels," Thomas said in Monday's statement.

What does the budget look like?

According to Petronio, the district's yearly expenses have increased since last year, and will continue to increase going into 2024. With more students going to charter schools, which BPS pays for then gets reimbursed by the state government, the district received a higher bill and less reimbursement money from the state this school year.

Plus, longer busing routes and more busses, more expensive mental health care for students with severe mental health concerns and an increase in special education students and staff have added to the district's expenses.

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The district received roughly $13 million in additional funds from the state, Petronio said. If the district's student enrollment hadn't dropped, it could've received up to $20 million — totaling a loss of $7 million. If more low-income students enrolled, an extra $6 million could've come in.

BPS' total annual budget is over $200 million. The district pays between $5 million and $6 million biweekly for payroll. The district has to pay roughly $21 million in salary increases next year.

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Still, the district has almost entirely cut costs for instructional materials - mainly through reducing the amount of paper used in classrooms.

The district's finance subcommittee will meet Tuesday evening at 6 p.m. before joining the rest of the BPS School Committee for their regular meeting at 7 p.m.

Shrinking student body

Brockton High School — which boasts one of the largest student bodies in the state — lost over 260 students from last year. Over the course of five years, the high school's student enrollment fell from 4,032 students in 2018 to 3,679 in 2023, according to data from the Department of Education.

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Across all BPS schools, enrollment sunk from 16,349 students in 2018 to 14,906 in 2023 — a dip of roughly 1,450 students. Since the start of the pandemic, over 1,000 students have left the school district.

How many teachers work for Brockton Public Schools?

The number of teachers employed in the district has fluctuated year to year but has remained roughly around 1,000 teachers. Over the last five years, the student-to-teacher ratio has decreased from 16.9 students per one teacher to 13.6 students per one teacher.

"This is in no way a reflection of the incredible work that our educators do every day and I am greatly disappointed that it has come to this," said the superintendent in Monday's statement.

But Petronio said he feels optimistic that enrollment numbers will return to normal within the next few years as real estate prices start to decrease as apartments start to sit empty.

"Until that turns around, we're in that predicament," Petronio said.

This article originally appeared on The Enterprise: Brockton Public Schools lays off 130 teachers amid enrollment slide