Brockton School Committee Candidates Clash on Finances, Safety, and Paraprofessional Pay

BROCKTON -- October 23, 2025, Eleven candidates debated Brockton School Committee seats in six wards at an NAACP-hosted forum Thursday, sparring over a past $18.5 million deficit, a contested National Guard letter, and stalled Boys and Girls Club expansion. Moderators Phyllis Ellis, president of the NAACP Brockton Area Branch, and NAACP member Darren Duarte pressed Ward 1 incumbent Jorge Vega, Ward 2 incumbent Claudia Gomes, and Ward 4 incumbent Tony Rodriguez on procurement failures, the February 2024 letter requesting National Guard deployment to Brockton High School, and why paraprofessionals remain in active mediation without a new contract. Rodriguez defended the letter as a request for a mayoral meeting that was leaked by a city councilor, saying Guard members would have served as plain-clothes substitute teachers to cover 800 to 1,200 unsupervised students daily. Challenger Nolan Napier, an accountant who manages roughly $700 million annually at Harvard University, called the committee's decision to bring bus operations in-house without a market analysis "a really bad decision," while Rodriguez said a pre-kindergarten schedule change is projected to save approximately $3 million in transportation costs next season. Ward 3 had no candidates; Ward 6 incumbent Josh Asak and Ward 7 incumbent Timothy Sullivan did not attend. Voters choose November 4.