A decade after chronic under-performance led to state control, Holyoke Public Schools has been granted a provisional release. It’s effective next year, but depends on how prepared the school committee is for the return of local control.
Months after announcing the transition process back to local control was starting, Dr. Russell Johnston, the state’s acting commissioner of elementary and secondary education, says a provisional decision was made to remove Holyoke Public Schools from receivership.
“We are announcing today the provisional release of Holyoke from chronically underperforming status, effective once we get through a provisional process which means continuing on with the work that the mayor and the receiver/superintendent have been leading, in order to make sure we have those conditions in place for continued improvement, post-receivership,” Johnston said during a Massachusetts Board of Elementary and Secondary Education meeting Tuesday.
Governor Maura Healey’s administration says the decision is effective July 1, 2025 and would need to be finalized in June by Johnston “depending on the Holyoke School Committee’s progress in implementing its ‘capacity building plan.’”
The plan, which Johnston assisted in developing with the committee, features a series of trainings for committee members, building their capacity to handle their roles in the event local control returns.
“This plan helps to bridge that gap between the knowledge and investment and learning that they've created for themselves, the trainings that they've invested in, and now putting that into action during this transitional period,” Johnston said. “And so things like, what is their involvement in labor relations? What is their involvement in the budget and budget development for the new school year? How are they working with the superintendent? How are they representing the community? These are all laid out in the transition plan – they’re very specific.”
Holyoke Public Schools have been in receivership since 2015 due to chronic underperformance.
Despite being stripped of most of its powers during receivership and being overseen by a state-selected receiver, the school committee has continued to meet.
One of three districts under state control, the others being Lawrence and Southbridge, it’s likely the first one in state history to get out of it.
Mayor Joshua Garcia, also at Tuesday’s board meeting, says school officials are not taking the opportunity for granted.
“We certainly do not take it, at all, very lightly,” he said before the board, sitting alongside Holyoke Receiver/Superintendent Anthony Soto. “We understand that there's still so much more work to do. The committee continues to remain very committed to do … what we need to do to prepare for this transition of power. We have a lot of folks on our board who weren't around when we were under local control, and we acknowledge that.”
Speaking with WAMC, School Committee Vice Chair Mildred Lefebvre called the announcement a surprise, but the fruition of years of work by the community.
She added that the capacity building plan approved in August is fluid. One example - superintendent evaluation training was slated to be done no later than October, but due to pressing items, it got bumped to November.
However, the committee also completed work on devising a community advisory team – something slated for November that got finalized this month instead.
“It's very detailed, very professional development-oriented, because some of us were not on the board pre-receivership,” she said in a phone interview while in Nevada, attending a conference focused on professional development and urban school board leadership with fellow committee member, Devin Sheehan.
“Some of our newer members … they've seen [through] the lens of what it's like under receivership, but now they're also learning the process of what it's going to be, and not only learn the process, but it's also creating the process that's individualized to Holyoke,” she added.
Since 2015, HPS has been credited with a slew of accomplishments, ranging from boosting its four-year, cohort graduation rate from 60.2 percent in 2014 to 74.6 in 2023.
It’s also seen an increase in the percentage f 11th and 12th graders completing advanced coursework, rising from 39.5 percent in 2018 to 57 percent in 2024, and an expansion of the district’s dual language program to serve more than 20 percent of the pre-K-through-grade-8 student population.
A district that serves more than 5,300 students, nearly a quarter are English learners, according to the HPS website.
State Education Secretary Patrick Tutwiler says the accomplishments are indicative of stakeholders who have been putting in the work over the last decade.
“The school district, its city leadership, its teachers, the families and students have worked hard over the past decade, have made significant progress - enough so that the commissioner felt it appropriate to begin to move that district to local control,” he told WAMC. “It's something that Governor Healey and myself fully-celebrate and support and look forward to continuing to partner with the district to help them meet their goals, but it is time for them to return to local control.”
Also Tuesday, Johnston said several individual schools in the state will exit “underperforming status.” That includes two in nearby Springfield – the High School of Commerce and Van Sickle Academy.
