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Holyoke Public Schools on track to leave receivership, return to local control in 2025
A provisional decision was announced to transition the district, which has been in receivership since 2015, to local control by July 1.
After a decade under the state’s control, Holyoke Public Schools will potentially be removed from its receivership status next year, a provisional decision the state announced Tuesday.
Holyoke schools were placed in receivership status in 2015, as the district was chronically underperforming and wasn’t showing improvement over time. Holyoke had the lowest graduation rate in the state and one of Massachusetts’s highest dropout rates at the time. Since then, the state reported progress including an improved graduation rate, reduced out-of-school suspension rate, and expansion of pre-K.
Holyoke currently enrolls about 4,900 students across 10 schools. The district is also building a new middle school to open next fall.
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When a school is placed under receivership, the state’s Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) appoints a receiver-superintendent, who has the authority that would normally be split between a superintendent and the school committee. Anthony Soto, a Holyoke alum, is the current state-appointed receiver superintendent.
“I want to partner with the school committee, I want to partner with the state and continue to move in that direction so that July 1, there’s no question we will be reverting back to local control, because we are doing everything that we need to do,” Soto said at a press conference Wednesday.
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The decision hinges on the district’s implementation of its Capacity Building Plan, which aims to improve the district’s governance of superintendent evaluation, superintendent hiring, finance and budgeting, and policy development. If all goes to plan, the schools will return to local control July 1.
In the meantime, the School Committee will recruit community members for a new Community Advisory Team to support the Committee with hiring and evaluation processes for a superintendent. A Local Control Subcommittee will continue to meet to focus on the Capacity Building Plan.
Oliver Middle School in Lawrence and two Springfield Empowerment Zone schools will all be removed from chronically underperforming status in the coming weeks. New Bedford’s John Avery Parker Elementary School will also exit that status after approval of exit assurances, the state said.
Holyoke Mayor: ‘Juntos podemos’
Russell Johnston, acting commissioner of DESE, lauded Holyoke Mayor Joshua Garcia, the School Committee, and Soto. The group spoke outside William G. Morgan School, the first school to go into receivership in the district.
“The changes are remarkable, and they are making a difference for the lives of children now,” Johnston said during the press conference. “There is more work to be done. We know that, and we know that the people who are leading this work behind me are the ones who will continue the district into the future.”
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Garcia, Holyoke’s first Latino mayor, said their school leaders now more accurately reflect their students. In 2015, more than 78 percent of the students were Hispanic, and in 2024, the percent has grown to more than 81 percent.
“I’m happy to tell you that together, we will be ready for July 1, because juntos podemos (together, we can),” Garcia said.
Soto, a “proud Puerto Rican kid from Holyoke,” as he said at the press conference, told reporters the district has almost tripled its number of teachers of color.
Over the decade of receivership, Holyoke saw a 23-point increase in graduation rates for English learners and an 18-point increase for students with disabilities, according to the state. The dual language program was also expanded to serve more than 20 percent of pre-K through 8th graders.
MTA: Holyoke has ‘waited too long to regain control over their public schools’
The Massachusetts Teachers Association leaders weighed in on Tuesday, calling receivership “a failed strategy.”
“The residents of Holyoke have waited too long to regain control over their public schools, and we are confident that the hard work by educators, parents, students, community partners and advocates for public education will successfully meet the state’s criteria for fully ending receivership,” MTA President Max Page and Vice President Deb McCarthy said in a joint statement.
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According to a review by The Boston Globe, Holyoke’s MCAS scores haven’t reflected any major academic improvement in math and English since 2017 and remain significantly below the overall state’s. In 2023, while 42% of third through eighth grade students across the state were meeting English expectations, only nine percent of Holyoke students were. Forty-one percent of Massachusetts students were meeting math expectations compared to 6 percent of Holyoke students, according to the Globe.
But, their scores have followed the same trends as other districts. Most of the state’s schools have not bounced back from pandemic-era learning loss, according to recent MCAS results.
Holyoke’s case reflects research that receiverships and state takeovers of public school districts rarely improve educational outcomes but do effectively address corruption or dysfunction, according to the Globe.
“Holyoke Public Schools suffered from decades of chronic underfunding and problematic district leadership that acutely affected students of historically marginalized communities,” Page and McCarthy said. “The Massachusetts Teachers Association never supported state receivership as it cut off the community’s ability to democratically decide on the function and priorities of its schools.”
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