Brockton saves 'very important' summer camps amid budget crisis

BROCKTON – Brockton Public Schools released the catalog of the Community Schools summer camp programs for students in the city, after a three-week delay in the registration date for parents to sign up their students.

The long-awaited list of summer programs was originally planned to be rolled out on April 22 but was put on hold pending funding approval by the School Committee for some programs. The Brockton School Committee is in the process of building the budget for fiscal year 2025, in which officials estimate a deficit between $7 million and $19 million.

Although 16 summer programs are fully funded, the committee needed to approve funding for three additional programs that ran in previous years: Camp Impact, Footbridge and the Launch Academy.

“These three programs are very important to our community,” said Brockton's Director of Community Schools Soraya de Barros-Monteiro.

According to Barros-Monteiro, roughly 2,000 Brockton students are expected to enroll into all 19 programs, and over 200 in the additional three that awaited funding.

The committee voted unanimously to approve a total of $225,657 to operate the three programs this summer. As committee members work to put together the fiscal year 2025 budget, some summer programs were potentially at risk of being cut or scaled back to address the projected deficit.

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"I've been thoroughly, thoroughly impressed about how well run that camp is, and how Community Schools is," said Jed Hresko, a BPS parent who said his daughter attended the basketball, gymnastics and swimming programs in the past three years.

"As you can imagine I'm a bit concerned about when the budget will be passed so that we as parents can sign up for summer camp," Hresko said. "Once you're into May you start getting nervous."

Committee members Tony Rodrigues and Ana Oliver said their kids have also participated in the camps, and Oliver said her daughter is "looking forward" to this camp this summer.

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Transportation funding request postponed

Next week the School Committee will discuss and vote on an additional $105,000 request by the Community Schools to pay for student transportation. This is the first year of this request.

"Just keep that in mind when we continue the budget process," said Brockton Mayor and School Committee Chair Robert Sullivan. "If we're going to use 300-grand to support this, which I think we should, we just have to figure out how to balance that."

How to register for summer programs

As a result of the vote Tuesday night, the Brockton Community Schools released the summer brochure Wednesday. It is available for parents to review on the Brockton Community Schools website. Registration opens on May 13 at 9 a.m. and is on a first come, first serve basis.

If you experience difficulties registering, contact the Community Schools of Brockton at 508-580-7595 for assistance.

This article originally appeared on The Enterprise: Brockton releases Community Schools summer camp catalog after delay