The city of Holyoke is once again in charge of its school system, with Tuesday marking the first day of the district returning to local control following ten years under state receivership.
Speaking at a recent state education board meeting, Mayor Joshua Garcia affirmed his city was ready for the work ahead as the July 1 switchover approached.
“We've trained up for this moment and I feel confident that [with] this board, under our current governance model and structure, we can hit the ground running and do the important work that we need to do for our district's children,” he said June 24.
The state gave provisional approvals for a receivership exit last year, with Massachusetts Secretary of Education Dr. Patrick Tutwiler formally announcing in June that all was in order for the switch.
Following years of graduation rates and test scores ticking upwards, the move was a long time coming as WAMC has reported since 2015, when the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education first approved receivership status that April.
Consistent struggles to improve
“1 in 8 students reading on grade level in the early grades, 1 in 4 doing math on grade level… the lowest graduation rate of any district in the state,” Then-Education Commissioner Mitchell Chester recounted in spring 2015 – a time that saw the board approve his receivership recommendation and talks of a turnaround plan begin. “… one of the highest dropout rates of any district in the state, a high suspension rate..."
Before HPS became the second district in state history to fall under receivership or “Level 5” “chronically underperforming” status, Holyoke was already classified as a “Level 4” district, considered to be “underperforming” with little signs of improvement.
The district was home to some of the lowest achievement scores in the state, a 60.2 percent graduation rate and numerous other issues, making it one of if not the worst-performing district in Massachusetts at one point.
Before the switch to receivership, one of its schools, Morgan Elementary, had already hit Level 5 due to “persistently low performance.”
The city was not overjoyed over news of state control coming.
Teachers’ union officials expressed alarm over the move, including turnaround plan language allowing for the commissioner and receiver to “make additional changes to collective bargaining agreements as needed.”
On the administrative side, leading up to the board vote, then-Superintendent Sergio Paez urged community members to unite against a state takeover.
But, by late-fall 2015, Paez was out and a turnaround plan was released for HPS and its roughly 5,600 students at the time.
"… and we can really turn the district upside down and what receivership was meant to mean for the city - instead of it being something that’s damaging to Holyoke, it’s now something that can be exciting for Holyoke,” then-Mayor Alex Morse told reporters in October as a turnaround plan was nailed down.
Chester initially indicated the plan would span three years, with state control likely remaining for a total of six.
“This plan will help your children… we will provide stronger academics, a stronger learning program – we’ll make sure your children experience a strong, broad curriculum,” he said.
The first iteration of the turnaround plan included more time in school for K-8th graders, a redesign of HPS secondary schools and an overhaul of the district’s central administrative office.
Leading that turnaround would be state-appointed receiver Dr. Stephen Zrike, previously the superintendent of Wakefield Pubic Schools and a former Boston Public Schools principal, where he also performed turnaround work.
In an interview with WAMC in June 2016, Zrike emphasized how connecting with parents was an early priority, with some gains made during the first year under receivership.
“We've made some good inroads - parents have been a lot more comfortable sharing their stories - good, bad and ugly - with us, which is a sign to me that they’re more engaged,” he said. “We just had a parent celebration with volunteers across the schools… we opened our Office of Family and Community Engagement in earnest - we hired a director for that effort.”
Early signs of improvement, but little signs of local control returning
In 2018, the turnaround plan was revised and renewed. Progress included a “29-point increase in early literacy performance in grades K–1,” a 50 percent reduction in the dropout rate and an almost ten percentage point increase for the four-year graduation rate.
Still, issues remained. In a letter to the school community, Zrike described how English language arts and math scores remained “below state expectations and many of our students still do not graduate high school."
“We cannot afford to mistake improved for acceptable," he added.
It was 2020 when Zrike departed as receiver for a superintendent role in Salem, Mass. After some reshuffling, Holyoke native and then-financial officer-turned-interim-receiver Anthony Soto took on the role.
He spoke with WAMC in 2021 as the pandemic appeared to tank progress on student absenteeism and other aspects of the turnaround.
Still, it was a role he said he was proud to have.
“Had anybody else asked me to be superintendent in any other community, my answer would have been ‘No,’" he said. “The only reason my answer was ‘Yes’ is because I love this community, and I feel strongly that that I can make a difference in this seat.”
Soto would remain the district’s receiver/superintendent for the rest of its time under state control. The school committee would later select him to serve as interim superintendent upon exiting receivership.
Before that, the district would see more progress – graduation rates would hit 77 percent by 2024. Pre-K programs would be expanded and a much-needed middle school project moved forward.
Meanwhile, more high school students were reportedly taking on advanced course work and steady gains were made in building a more diverse teaching staff - one that's now at least 32 percent people of color, HPS says, teaching a student body where a quarter are English-learners, 90 percent of whom speak Spanish.
Receivership exit push yields historic results
This, after the turnaround plan was again revised and renewed in 2022. A year later, the school committee and others started to rally hard for a receivership exit.
Citing progress made, a petition from the school committee and a letter from Soto would make its way to then-Commissioner Jeffery Riley. Riley would defer before later departing his role.
Soon afterwards, interim Education Commissioner Dr. Russell Johnston would announce what the community had long been demanding.
"We are officially entering the transition process to return to local control," Johnston told the school committee in March 2024.
The move was contingent on several factors, like the school committee being trained up on how to run a district of now-4,800 students after being disempowered for a decade.
Final agreements were inked in early 2025, including a deal to keep some of the turnaround plan around for another two years, a move criticized by the teachers’ union over elements like bargaining limitations staying in place.
By July 1, Holyoke Public Schools became the first Massachusetts school district to exit receivership after coming under state control.
Addressing high teacher turnover rates, absenteeism and continuing to get test scores up remain some of the district’s priorities as local control gets back underway.
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Years of reporting by WAMC Pioneer Valley Bureau Chief Emeritus Paul Tuthill was used for this story.
