Brockton Public Schools

As schools shut down for the pandemic in 2020, evaluators from the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education finished their six-year review of the Brockton Public Schools. The reviewers were critical of the district.

The Brockton Public Schools have named a professional with a background in public safety and schoolwide emergency management as the district’s first director of safety and security. Robert Jackson will join the Brockton Public Schools later this month in the newly established role, where he will oversee the district’s efforts to foster a safe learning and teaching environment at all of Brockton’s public schools.

For twenty years, the percentage of English language learners in Massachusetts’ public schools has been steadily climbing. Urban districts are accustomed to serving large immigrant populations. But district leaders are appealing to Beacon Hill in the 11th hour for major assistance.

Since 2021, Brockton’s assistant superintendent of equity, diversity and inclusion, Dr. Renée Heywood, has pursued systemic change with a team of four.

Since January, Brockton High School Principal Kevin McCaskill has been rebuilding the foundation for quality public education in the City of Champions. He is confident that a critical mass of teachers, administrators and parents will come together to support student learning.

To understand the turmoil at Brockton High School, study the school system’s budget woes. Short of cash for the second year, Brockton’s teaching corps is overwhelmed amid an $18.3 million deficit.

Brockton, citing financial hardship over the last year, has left more than a thousand public school students without teachers for one or more periods a day. These students are overwhelmingly Black and brown.

There are estimated to be hundreds of Brockton Public Schools students sitting in the high school cafeteria or classrooms with no teacher, or maybe just a teacher aide, or paraprofessional, as Peter Roby reported in last week’s Banner. Brockton’s enrollment is predominantly Black or Hispanic.