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OpenCommonwealth Calls on the Malden City Council, The School Committee and the Mayor of Malden to request a financial audit of the Malden Public Schools from the Massachusetts State Auditor as prescribed by law.

In order for our office to examine this, we would need a request from the City of Malden itself. The process for reques@ng a municipal audit, according to the MassachuseAs General Laws, says the request must come “following a majority vote by the board of selectmen or school commiAee that is ra@fied by a special […]

Is State Oversight Failing? Should DESE validate the numbers filed by Districts?

OpenCommonwealth has requested that multiple Federal and State authorities audit Malden Public Schools financials, is there a greater problem afoot? We have sought Legal Fees through Public Records from multiple districts and will report our findings. We welcome our readers to provide tips and information regarding other districts who may be experiencing similar issues in […]

OpenCommonwealth Calls for Investigation and Audits of Malden Public Schools and their Special Education Programs.

OpenCommonwealth is requesting that OSEP, the Massachusetts Office of the Inspector General, .the Massachusetts State Auditor and DESE investigate and perform a detailed financial audit of the Malden Public Schools, and specifically the Special Education programs of the Malden Public Schools.

Is Malden Public Schools is in a financial crisis? Why would they spend 2.5 times more on legal fees than they did 2016-2018?

Malden Public Schools legal expenses between 2019 and 2023 have grown on average 250% or two and a half times what they were spending on average in 2016-2018.   Unfortunately, we were unable to get publicly published data from DESE for the years prior to 2019, however we have an outstanding request for 2016-2018. It should […]

Should Public Schools Special Needs Budgets Pay for Public Records Litigation?

Our friends at the Public Schools Data Exchanger recently received a response to a public records request from the Malden Public Schools. In this response, it appears that many public records battles and open meeting law battles the City of Malden finds itself in are being directed to the Assistant Superintendent of Special Education, Ms. […]