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Attorney outlines steps to separate Brockton Education Fund from district control
Summary
An attorney advised the committee to conduct an accounting of BEF funds, adopt new bylaws and hold a public application process to select an independent BEF board; members discussed oversight, voting status for school liaisons and estimated the fund balance as several hundred thousand dollars.
Attorney for the district briefed the committee on a plan to formally separate the Brockton Education Fund (BEF) from the care and custody of the school department.
The attorney recommended three principal steps: (1) perform a thorough accounting of funds currently held in the BEF account to ensure each line belongs in the BEF; (2) run a public application process to select a new, independent board of directors and adopt a new set of bylaws at the BEF annual meeting; and (3) file any required paperwork with the state so the BEF operates as a separate nonprofit outside of district control.
Under the attorney’s reading of current BEF bylaws, the BEF’s existing board has authority now to select its successors at its annual meeting, but the committee discussed whether the district and the public should have more input on composition and whether school-committee liaisons should be voting members within future bylaws. Committee members suggested the new board be odd-numbered (five to nine members), representative of the community and subject to term limits. A superintendent estimate put funds in the BEF at "several hundred thousand" dollars.
Why it matters: The change would move funds and governance out of the school department and into a community-managed nonprofit. Committee members emphasized the need for transparency and for a clear accounting of funds schools currently rely on so that school-level activity accounts are not disrupted during the transition.
Next steps: Committee directed staff to schedule a BEF meeting to begin the accounting and to draft bylaws for committee input; members asked to expedite work before the end of the calendar year so the reconstituted BEF could operate in 2027.
