Holyoke schools to exit state oversight July 1 after decade of receivership
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'For a very long time, all we've been looking and waiting for is to be considered a partner in how we improve outcomes, improve our systems, in the district,' Garcia said. 'Receivership is not meant to be a permanent situation.'
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Local officials have been petitioning the state to regain control of their district since 2023, and their path out has been clear since October, when then-acting education Commissioner Russell Johnston said he was removing the district's 'chronically underperforming' status.
'I just want to cry, but I'm
happy,' School Committee member Rosalee Tensley Williams said Monday. 'Words cannot express the way I feel right now.'
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The state school board voted to take over Holyoke in 2015 following years of poor academic results. The local School Committee and
superintendent were stripped of their decision-making power, and a state-selected leader was installed. Under Massachusetts law, the state can take control of consistently low-performing districts and appoint a so-called receiver who is charged with executing a turnaround plan.
Critics at the time opposed the removal of local control from the majority Latino, high-poverty district, but proponents said it as was necessary to give those students a quality education they deserve.
At the time, the district had some of the worst academic outcomes in the state, including the lowest graduation rate, just 60 percent, and very wide achievement gaps by race, income, English learner status, and other measures.
Simone Fried, a University at Buffalo education professor who has studied the Holyoke takeover and other state interventions, said there were 'systematic violation of children's rights to education' in Holyoke that required some sort of intervention, but 'it's exciting news' the takeover is ending.
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'Takeover was never intended, or should not be intended, to be a permanent solution,' Fried said. 'It seems to me that it's a promising sign that they're able to be at a place where they're able to resume local control.'
Ultimately, improvements under state receivership have been very limited. While state officials touted increases in the district's graduation rate — 77 percent last year — and other measures, those
gains
have largely reflected statewide trends.
Beth Schueler, a University of Virginia professor who also studies receivership, said while she has found some positive effects in Lawrence, state takeover had a 'neutral to negative' impact in Holyoke and Southbridge. Her research
only analyzed data for school years
prior to COVID, when schools were abruptly shuttered, but state absenteeism and test score data indicate Holyoke students were
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In their news release announcing the end of receivership, state leaders also cited various operational changes that took place over the last decade. The district expanded its pre-K program to more than 500 seats, redesigned the high school, expanded career-related offerings, and built a new middle school, set to open this fall.
'While school improvement work will continue in Holyoke, it is time for local officials to take the lead,' Education Secretary Patrick Tutwiler said in a statement. 'Community stakeholders have consistently shared their input into the district's decision-making processes, and the School Committee partnered with a Community Advisory Team as part of the capacity-building plan. This experience is a strong foundation for the district's future.'
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Tutwiler also serves as interim education commissioner; his successor,
Stephen Zrike, the district's initial state receiver and now Salem superintendent,
agreed improvements had been made in some areas even if there's more to be done.
'People automatically assume with a receivership that it's just about what happens in the classroom, but the system did need a lot of infrastructural support around operations,' he said. 'It worked in some regards.'
Holyoke Teachers Association President Nick Cream cheered the end of receivership, but called for the lifting of
compensated in part based on their effectiveness as educators, their professional growth, and student academic improvement.
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Cream said the union does not believe it's a full exit of state control until those provisions end.
'If we don't have control over having a say in those things, we're not going to have the outcomes we believe our students deserve and students need,' he said.
Christopher Huffaker can be reached at
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