'Sweet deals': Brockton schools gave at least 125 non-union contracts with costly benefits

One of the reasons the Brockton Public Schools budget imploded was a "mind blowing" number of individual non-union contracts with costly benefits, said TJ Plante of Open Architects, a state-wide data analysis company tasked with reviewing the district’s Fiscal Year 2023 financial records.

"We're giving out sweet deals and this is why we're in a crisis and nobody was managing it," said newly elected Brockton School Committee member Ana Oliver at the Feb. 6 meeting.

"I don't know if we have a money tree in the back somewhere?"

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Plante said that between 125 and 150 BPS staff members at various levels of command — from administrators to nurses and custodians — signed individual, non-union contracts with the school district that included lucrative benefits including vacation time, buyback clauses, built-in salary increases and weekly overtime pay on top of their typical salaries, some of which total six figures.

Plante estimated that the school district owes roughly $2 million to staff just in contract buyouts alone.

"I don't understand why," Plante said. "It was mind blowing."

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Plante said these one-to-one contracts are typically reserved for high-level personnel like principals or superintendents who might require additional, non-union benefits.

According to Plante, school districts normally sign 20 or so one-to-one contracts, while Brockton signed at least 125.

At the Feb. 6 meeting, committee members said they will see which of these contracts they can freeze or cancel to contain costs and "stop the hemorrhaging," Brockton Mayor and School Committee Chair Robert Sullivan said.

This article originally appeared on The Enterprise: Brockton Public Schools gave out dozens of costly non-union contracts