How Much…. NO REALLY, How Much?
The Malden Public Schools appears unable to provide a consistent, reliable dollar amount for the amount of money it expends on legal fees, year over year.
OpenCommonwealth has requested these records from DESE, the Controller of the City of Malden, and the Malden Public Schools multiple times.
We are not alone in seeking this information, the Malden Teachers Union has requested this information and Malden News Network has also requested this information.
One problem with this data, is that it is woefully incomplete. On April 5, 2024, we re-requested the missing information.
The other problem is that the data is completely inconsistent. The Malden Public Schools is required, like all other school districts in the Commonwealth to provide annual financial data, including attestation from a CPA firm that the data has been audited and is correct.
The filed and certified DESE numbers are the bassline for our reporting and arguably, should be the most accurate.
However we have the numbers from the MEA Request, and from the MNN request along with the April 2024 OpenCommonwealth request too.
All of the numbers are combined and analyzed here.
Look for yourselves, we are dumbfounded, we shall forward the responses, and the numbers along with any additional data received from the district and our analysis to Federal, State and DESE officials for review, and a request for official audits to be performed.