Brookline and its school department denied allegations in a lawsuit by a former finance official who has charged she was pressured to falsify records amid a long-running budget controversy.
In a response released by a Norfolk County Superior Court this week, the town and school district requested that the lawsuit, filed by former school finance director Diane Johnson in November, be dismissed.
“The defendants actions were based on legitimate, non-pretextual business reasons ...taken for good and just cause,” lawyers for the town and school district wrote in the 16-page filing.
Johnson, who worked for the school district from November, 2023, until September, 2025, alleged that she was ousted for refusing to falsify financial information that would hide problems in the district’s special education budget.
The legal wrangling is the latest chapter in a series of controversies and accusations of mismanagement of funds that have embroiled the district over the last two years.
In 2024, the district’s top special education official resigned, alleging financial mismanagement, and a group of administrators offered their own complaint, blaming budgetary blunders for putting vulnerable students’ services at risk. Last year, Brookline uncovered an $8.2 budget shortfall and Superintendent Linus Guillory Jr. announced his resignation in April.
The Globe also reported that the school district might have improperly re-routed hundred of thousands of dollars in federal special education aid to pay for more than half a million dollars in salary expenses. Federal law prohibits schools from using special education funding provided by the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, or IDEA, to supplant or replace local funds. An audit by the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education later found that no mismanagement of IDEA funds took place.
Amid the controversies, Johnson’s boss, Dr. Susan Givens, deputy superintendent of administration and finance, included projected numbers in a budget that gave “the impression that a major part of the problem with the [special education] program was solved, when in reality it was not,” the lawsuit said.
Johnson alleged that she was asked on Jan. 14, 2025, to enter false information into a quarterly report that was to be presented at a meeting of the school committee’s financial council the next day. Johnson felt the request to alter financial information was not “accurate or appropriate,” according to the lawsuit.
“I do not believe it is in the best interest of the Public Schools of Brookline, nor do I believe it represents fiscal reporting with honesty,” she said in the lawsuit.
After she allegedly refused to falsify the information, Givens screamed at Johnson, “accusing her of being unprofessional, and instructing Ms. Johnson to do as she was told,” the lawsuit said.
When Johnson refused to give in, Givens stormed out of the room, according to the lawsuit.
Givens did not respond to a request for comment from the Globe. Johnson declined to comment.
After the altercation, Johnson was denied a request for time off and not reimbursed for nearly $2,000 in expenses she made to attend a conference. Johnson’s complaints to HR were ignored, the lawsuit said.
On Sept. 11, Johnson received a letter from the school district saying that she would be fired due to “insubordination.”
The controversies and leadership changes have rattled the community.
“There has been so much mismanagement that trust has been broken with parents. And once that trust is broken, it’s hard to regain trust,“ said Lisa Butters Scher a Brookline parent of a child in special education that graduated last year.
Material from prior Globe coverage was used in this story.
Sign in to read the full article.
Sign in with Google