Brockton Schools Launches Electronic Warrant Review System for Committee Oversight

BROCKTON -- March 3, 2026, Brockton school finance subcommittee receives first briefing on new electronic warrant review system. The Account Review Subcommittee met Tuesday at the Dr. William H. Arnone Theater to hear CFO Kim Tsai outline a newly implemented process using Python automation and DocuSign to route purchase-order packets to two designated school committee members for pre-payment sign-off, a requirement reinforced by a 2012 Department of Revenue review and a subsequent district audit. Tsai said the workflow includes a Microsoft Forms mechanism allowing reviewers to either pause a payment or approve it while flagging questions, with a Friday review deadline giving finance staff time to halt checks before the city auditor's Wednesday processing cutoff. Subcommittee members raised concerns about navigating dense multi-department invoice packets and questioned how deeply they could probe budget-line balances during warrant review; Tsai and the superintendent said year-to-date budget reports, not the warrant process itself, are the proper venue for deficit-risk questions. Tsai acknowledged a current Munis limitation prevents staff from generating a list of purchase orders actively in the payment pipeline.