When the state’s Board of Elementary and Secondary Education voted on April 28, 2015 to take receivership of Holyoke Public Schools, there was no clear path back to local governance. Over the past several years, the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) and the Holyoke School Committee have worked together to articulate a path.
After a decade of turnaround efforts, Holyoke will be the first of the three to exit receivership, now that Education Secretary and Interim Commissioner Dr. Patrick Tutwiler has announced his decision to end the district’s 10 years of receivership and restore local control effective Tuesday, July 1, 2025.
“If a Holyoke resident was asking whether we, as school committee members, are ready to be in charge again, I would say (we’re) more than ready,” said School Committee Vice Chair Dr. Yadilette Rivera Colón in the opening moments of this five-minute video that showcases the many ways School Committee members have been preparing for the return to local governance.
“One of the things that I think set us apart and really put us on track to being out of receivership—at some point—is the fact that we remained an active school committee,” Dr. Rivera Colón said. “We continued to have meetings, we had our elections, we had our elected officials in. We were able to listen to all the reports by the different receivers and that kept us with always a finger on the pulse.”
In March 2024 when former Massachusetts Acting Commissioner of Elementary and Secondary Education Russell D. Johnston informed the Holyoke School Committee that the time to end receivership would be coming soon, they began working on a Capacity Building Plan. The plan was completed in August (English) | (Spanish). It spelled out concrete steps and timelines to ensure the district’s elected board would be well prepared to assume its role in four major areas of school district governance when receivership is ultimately ended, including:
Superintendent evaluation (with a focus on continuous improvement and collaboration)
Superintendent hiring
Finance and budget
Policy development
The role and responsibilities of the School Committee are different under local control as compared to state receivership, Holyoke Mayor Joshua A. Garcia said. As part of their preparation for the transition, Holyoke’s School Committee members have participated in trainings related to all four major areas of governance.
School Committee member Ellie Wilson, who chairs the Policy and Governance Subcommittee, said another key area of focus has been reviewing all of the district’s policies. “We hired the Massachusetts Association for School Committees to help support us in that process,” she said. “The Policy and Governance Subcommittee has looked at around 300 policies since we started. We're in the process of making recommendations to the full school committee.”
While there will still be adjustments and changes to prepare for over the coming weeks, months, and years, Mayor Garcia said, “I'm telling you right now that I have full faith and confidence in this body to be ready July 1 to take on local control.”