Later this month, the public schools in Holyoke, Massachusetts will start the 5th academic year under state receivership.
In April 2015, the Massachusetts Board of Elementary and Secondary Education voted to have the state take over the Holyoke schools citing a chronically low high school graduation rate, a high number of dropouts, and all around bad academic performance.
Two months later, Stephen Zrike was put in charge of turning around the Holyoke schools as the state-appointed chief administrator.
Earlier this week, WAMC’s Pioneer Valley Bureau Chief Paul Tuthill spoke with Zrike.
