Almost a year after being forced on leave amid bombshell news that the City of Brockton had uncovered a multimillion-dollar deficit in the school department’s budget, a long-time district administrator has filed a whistle-blower lawsuit, alleging city and district leadership retaliated against him for continually warning them about their impending financial imbroglio.

Christopher Correia, assistant financial officer for Brockton Public Schools, was placed on paid administrative leave last fall along with his supervisor, Aldo Petronio, the district’s chief financial officer, pending the outcome of an investigation into the budget shortfall. Brockton Public Schools Superintendent Mike Thomas also went on extended medical leave last August on the same day Brockton Mayor Robert F. Sullivan revealed that the district had overspent its fiscal year 2023 budget of $219 million by about $14 million — a figure officials later revised to more than $18 million.

The complaint, filed last Friday, alleges that city and district officials not only ignored Correia’s insistent warnings about the budget crisis, but subjected him to public ridicule by “insinuating he had done something wrong.” The lawsuit names the City of Brockton, Thomas, Sullivan, and James Cobb — a district operations leader who served last as acting superintendent in Thomas’s absence last school year — as defendants.

Correia is seeking a trial by jury on the counts that the defendants violated state civil rights and...

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