Meet Brockton School Committee's newest face: Claudio Gomes hopes to engage students

BROCKTON - When Claudio E. Depina Gomes was a student at Brockton High School, he had hardly heard about the district's School Committee, but he said he wanted to "come back and provide for all these students" somehow after he graduated.

On Brockton's election night, Gomes was elected to represent Ward 2 on the Brockton School Committee, replacing current member and Ward 5 candidate Cynthia Rivas Mendes.

"I've been through the system. I've seen it. It could do a lot more for the students," Gomes said.

After moving to Brockton as a teenager in 2014 from Cape Verde, he said he wanted to take Spanish at Brockton High, but the district didn't have enough teachers or funding to have a Spanish class.

"I had friends in high school that didn't really like school. They had a lot of issues going on and were skipping classes, and then would join groups outside of school and then get in trouble sometimes," he said.

So, Gomes wanted to return to the school district and help future students and "engage them in the community, engage them towards something good, something valuable."

In last week's election, Gomes beat out Jamie Hodges receiving 410 votes to Hodges' 332 - or 55.3% of the total vote.

Why Gomes ran for School Committee

Gomes launched his bid for the Brockton School Committee before the news broke of the district's $14.4 million budget deficit, but the discovery further solidified his goal to join the board.

"It's simply unacceptable," Gomes said. "We need the finance in order for us to function. Police officers have to get paid. Teachers have to get paid. If we don't have the funding, then things will not move forward."

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Through his previous day job with the Brockton Redevelopment Authority, where he served as the director of housing and community development until September, Gomes said he secured a $2 million grant for the department.

Gomes recently earned a bachelor's degree in psychology from Boston College, so his priorities as a member of the school committee are to bring in more mental health services for students and increase the district's safety systems.

"Education goes beyond school," he said. "Issues happening at home or in the community could affect our students and the way that they behave and understand things at school."

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Who is Claudio Gomes

Gomes graduated from Brockton High School in 2018, and now is working towards a master's degree in clinical mental health from Boston College. Meanwhile, he worked his way up through the Brockton Redevelopment Authority.

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Now he works as a mental health associate at Pembroke Hospital.

Aside from mental health services and strong security, Gomes said he wants to bring more vocational education opportunities to compete with schools like Southeastern Regional Vocational Technical High School, which recruits a large number of students from Brockton.

He also plans to encourage collaboration within the Brockton Schools community, and hopes parents are willing to participate in school issues in the future.

"I'll try my best to live up to the expectations," he said.

This article originally appeared on The Enterprise: Brockton School Committee's newest member: Claudio Gomes