The building that houses the Corwin-Russell School at Broccoli Hall in Sudbury. The head of Broccoli Hall, a special education school, in Sudbury employs her husband and son.
The review found dozens of spouses, children and other relatives involved in financial contracts like teaching jobs, IT gigs or insurance deals. "It seems like an awfully big coincidence that the best person for each of these jobs just happened to be a family member of another person involved with the schools ... ."“People need to be able to trust that their tax dollars and other resources are being used by the nonprofit in the best possible way,” said Styron. “And it makes it tougher to do that when people see a lot of nepotism.
Nonprofit schools aren’t bound by those restrictions but must follow federal and state laws that require deals be reasonable and meet fair market standards when they involve leaders or board members. “I got called in front of Jane . It was scary because who wants to be yelled at and fired,” Pamela Clapp said.
The school also failed to have written agreements for some of its outside contractors, the audit found. The analysis revealed contracts for lawyers, insurance agents and financial managers. One board member owned a company that provided medical prescriptions to a school. Another was on the board of a business that supplied food to the school. Several others were paid consulting fees.
“If the organization had completely independently functioning boards of directors, would those boards have determined in all of these cases that family members of other board members or executives were the absolute best people for the job?” she asked. In another example, Broccoli Hall employed Mark Dutkewych, the husband of then-board member Lisa Freedman, starting in the 2014 fiscal year. He and his wife left Broccoli Hall in 2019. They declined to comment.
It’s the state’s procurement agency, which requires state contractors — including the schools — hire an accounting firm and produce an audited financial report every year. Among those calling for reforms is education advocate Ben Tobin, who helps parents navigate the private special ed system. He said the public currently has no way to know how taxpayer money is being spent at these schools.