Hiring a New England Patriots Tremendous Bowl champion as the pinnacle coach of the Brockton Excessive College soccer group raised the eyebrows of a legislation agency charged with investigating an $18 million finances shortfall within the metropolis’s public faculties.
Boston-based legislation agency Nystrom, Beckman & Paris slammed Brockton’s former superintendent Michael Thomas, who it mentioned described himself as “not a numbers guy,” and the way he allegedly “circumvented hiring protocols” – creating positions for associates and people he was linked to.
In a scathing report launched this week, the agency highlighted the hiring of former New England Patriot Jermaine Wiggins as “another example” of Thomas’ questionable hiring selections.
Thomas tapped Wiggins as Brockton Excessive’s head soccer coach in April 2023, changing Peter Colombo who led this system because the late Sixties. The superintendent then went on medical depart months later, that August.
The obtrusive finances deficit, which Nystrom, Beckman & Paris attributed to “overspending … caused by structural failures,” got here to mild across the time Thomas went on depart.
“We did NOT find evidence of misappropriation of funds by any City or School Department employee. We found no evidence of financial fraud, theft, or related criminal conduct,” the report states.
Wiggins, a co-host on WEEI’s morning sports activities radio present, had zero teaching expertise and was not a member of the Brockton Schooling Affiliation on the time of his hiring.
An settlement between the lecturers’ union and Brockton College Committee establishes a stipend quantity for teaching positions and desire “shall be given to a (union member) when (he/she) has equal or greater qualifications than another applicant.”
Wiggins, a decent finish who helped the Patriots win their first Tremendous Bowl within the 2001 season, acquired a draft contract earlier than he was employed that listed him as a “Mentor and Head Football Coach” at a wage of $100,000, in line with Nystrom, Beckman & Paris’ report.
“Thomas offered him the position and explained that: ‘Coach Wiggins [is] getting the same contracted stipend that anyone that got this job would have received,’” the report states.
It’s a story offered to the general public, with Thomas responding to an inquiry in Might 2023 that Wiggins was set to “receive a $15,388.61 stipend.”
“To make matters worse, Thomas sought to use grant monies to cover Wiggins’s salary,” the report states. “BPS applied for the Shannon Grant, which is designed to ‘help youth between the ages of 10 and 24 who are at risk for gang involvement.’”
In a grant proposal, officers highlighted how Wiggins would mentor greater than a thousand highschool student-athletes
“Wiggins’s contract, however, did not include such mentoring services,” the report states.
James Cobbs directed the district to “withdraw the grant application” shortly after taking up as performing superintendent final 12 months, informing Wiggins that BPS “could not pay him $100,000, but could only offer him the stipend that every other head coach received,” the report states.
After Cobbs negotiated with the lecturers’ union to permit Wiggins to remain on as coach on the stipend quantity, Wiggins agreed to satisfy his teaching duties.
“In short, Superintendent Thomas often did as he pleased when it came to hiring,” Nystrom, Beckman & Paris wrote in its report. “He spent school funds without considering the impact of his spending on the budget or the rules. He made unilateral decisions, stifled opposition, and concealed the impact of his decisions from the School Committee and the public.”
The Wiggins Period at Brockton Excessive lasted lower than a 12 months.
In Wiggins’ solely season, the group went 3-8, which included a 1-5 begin. The Boxers didn’t beat a group with a successful file and misplaced in blowout style to Barnstable, Andover and Pinkerton Academy of Derry, N.H.
On the time of hiring, many throughout the establishment advised the Herald that Wiggins’ journey from humble beginnings in East Boston, on the sphere and off, impressed them, and he had a voice that would attain Brockton’s younger athletes.
“We’re setting a standard that’s very high,” Wiggins had advised the Herald. “We want to win. We want to win a championship. That’s what we’re trying to do: win a Super Bowl. So those are the expectations that we’re setting for ourselves, and the first day of practice is when you start working towards that.”
