Appointment Letter from the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education

Anthony Soto was appointed Receiver/ Superintendent of Holyoke Public Schools (HPS) on July 1, 2021, after serving as the acting or interim receiver since February.  He is thrilled to work with Holyoke staff, students, families and community members to lead his hometown district.

Since 2016, Mr. Soto has served as the Chief Financial and Operations Officer at HPS. In this role, he has ensured the financial and operational health of our $125+M school system, serving 5,300 students across 12 schools.  In his first year in this position, he closed a $5 million budget gap with minimal impact at the classroom level.  Since that time, Mr. Soto has consistently developed and led his team to deliver the highest quality service to schools.  During his tenure, he was mentored by the former Superintendents to thoroughly understand the complexity and leadership required to assume the role of Superintendent.  He loves visiting classrooms, celebrating students’ successes, talking with families, and being in the Holyoke community.

Prior to coming to Holyoke, Mr. Soto worked for the Springfield Public Schools for nearly 10 years.  He began as a financial analyst and was promoted to Budget Director.  Under his leadership, he managed a team of financial analysts to support 52 schools.  Prior to Springfield Public Schools, he worked in public accounting for a big four firm, PriceWaterhouseCoopers (PwC), and a small regional firm.

Mr. Soto earned his undergraduate and graduate degrees in accounting from the  Isenberg School of Management at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, which he attended on a scholarship.  He is a licensed Superintendent, business administrator and public purchasing official in Massachusetts.  He was a fellow in the inaugural cohort of the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education’s Influence 100 program, which is designed to prepare participants for the role of Superintendent.  As an HPS student, he attended Kirkland, Lawrence, Peck and Dean Technical, where he was the salutatorian of the Class of 1999.

In his free time, Mr. Soto loves to spend time with his wife, Melissa; son, AJ; and French Bulldog, Brody.  He also enjoys playing fastpitch softball and engaging with the Holyoke and Springfield softball community that he has been a part of for more than 20 years.

Civic Leadership

• Influence 100 Fellow (selected by DESE, a member of the first cohort)

• Clerk/Board Member at Valley Opportunity Council

• Treasurer/Board Member at MassHire Holyoke

• Assistant Coach for his son’s baseball/basketball teams.

Achievements, Awards, and Special Recognitions

• Salutatorian at Dean Technical High School (1999)

• Bilingual in Spanish and English.

• Led Springfield Public Schools team in winning the meritorious budget award and the GFOA distinguished budget award 4 years in a row

• Life-long resident of Western Mass (mostly in Holyoke) and is especially proud to be of service to the community in which he grew up and in which he is raising his own son.

• Entry Plan (PDF)

  • En Español (PDF)

• Strategic Plan (PDF)

  • En Español (PDF)

Dr. Stephen Mahoney is Assistant Superintendent. He is responsible for driving exceptional academic achievement and ensuring positive, inclusive school environments across the district. The departments of school leadership, academics, multilingual learning, social emotional learning, and family community engagement fall under Dr. Mahoney’s purview. He also collaborates closely with the Pupil Services team to ensure coordinated delivery of academic services to all students.

Prior to assuming the role of Assistant Superintendent, Dr. Mahoney served as HPS Chief of Schools and Executive Director of School Leadership (EDSL) from 2020-2022 and Executive Principal of Holyoke High School from 2018-2020.

During his time in Holyoke, Dr. Mahoney has led a successful high school redesign that merged all high school campuses into one “Holyoke High School” to promote equitable access to the full high school experience. He oversaw the revitalization of Dean Campus as a sought-after high school option and the expansion of the high school’s dual enrollment and early college programming, with significant increases in both enrollment and diversity of program participants. He also led the district’s leadership development work in partnership with the Relay Graduate School of Education, which has greatly contributed to increased alignment and effectiveness of instructional practices across the district. 

Dr. Mahoney brings more than 35 years of experience as a teacher, coach, school leader, and district leader, with more than half of that time in Western Massachusetts. Before joining HPS, Dr. Mahoney served as a faculty member at the Harvard Graduate School of Education and Associate Director of the Harvard Teacher Fellows. From 2005 to 2015, he founded and led the Springfield Renaissance School, an award-winning urban middle and high school, from which his three sons all graduated. He was a school leader at Norwell High School in Norwell, Mass., and Santa Monica High School in Santa Monica, Calif. He also taught history, English, and math and coached boys and girls soccer and basketball. He holds degrees from Brown University (B.A., International Relations), Stanford University (M.A., Curriculum and Instruction), and Boston College (Ed.D., Educational Leadership). 

Dr. Mahoney and his wife, Ruth, have been married for 31 years and have three sons: Liam, Gavin, and Eamonn, and, like Steve, are passionate soccer players and fans. Dr. Mahoney is a reader, an occasional surfer, and a fan of all things Holyoke. Go Knights and Hawks!

Mickey Buhl joined Holyoke Public Schools in 2016 as the Executive Director of Secondary Education to help create a plan to redesign the high school level.  Mickey worked with folks across the schools and community to develop the High School Redesign Plan that was released in 2017.  Since then, Mickey has served as the Executive Director of Opportunity Academy and helped create and lead several of the innovative programs created by the Redesign Plan including the Early College programs, Work-Based Learning program, and most principally, Opportunity Academy, which is a set of alternative high school programs that provide multiple pathways to a diploma for teenagers and adults for whom traditional large high schools did not work.  Close to 200 people have graduated through Opportunity Academy over the 5 years of its existence.  OA’s pathways have provided a lifeline to hundreds of learners who otherwise would have dropped out, and in partnership with the great work done at Holyoke High School and Dean Tech have helped increase the graduation rate by more than 10 percentage points and lower the dropout rate from a pre-receivership average around 10 percent per year to historic lows around 3.5 percent.

Mickey has over 20 years of experience leading schools, the great majority of that time focused on turnarounds for struggling schools.  Prior to Holyoke, Mickey was the Founding Head of School for an alternative charter high school in Springfield (Phoenix Charter Academy), coached principals and other school leaders for school improvement with the Achievement Network, led an English-language international school, and helped turn around a struggling elementary school in Madison, Wisconsin.  Mickey has master's degrees in Public Policy from the University of California-Berkeley and in Education from the College of William and Mary.  He is a licensed School Business Administrator license in Massachusetts.  Prior to becoming an educator, Mickey worked in the US Congress for the Congressional Budget Office (and likes to point out that during his tenure, the Federal Government ran a surplus!)

Across all of the schools he has led, Mickey has had a laser-like focus on the school budget as the key instrument to drive improvement.  He has a passion for good public policy, knows that no area of government is more important for children and our future than the public schools, and believes that one can tell the values and priorities of an organization by looking at its budget.  He can think of no better way to combine those passions than to work with the ambitious and committed team of leaders and educators as the Chief Financial Officer for Holyoke Public Schools.

Outside of work, Mickey is as passionate about baseball as he is about budgets and policy.  He has three children spanning middle school through college of whom he is immensely proud and a wonderful wife who keeps him balanced and fills his life with beauty and joy.

Mrs. Currier is responsible for oversight of special education programming and ensuring schools have the resources and supports to meet the needs of all students. Marianne began her career in the Holyoke Public Schools 20 years ago as a special education team leader at Kelly School. She moved into a supervisor position within the Special Education Department and three years later became the Director of Student Services and Special Education. After starting her family, Marianne became the assistant principal at McMahon School, where she worked for over 10 years. Prior to joining the Holyoke Public Schools, Marianne worked for the Department of Youth Services as an Educational Liaison.

Marianne holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Psychology and Special Education from Marist College, a Master of Education degree in Early Childhood Education from Westfield State College, and a Certificate of Advanced Graduate Studies in Educational Administration from UMASS-Amherst.

Beth was formerly the Chief Administrative Officer for the Springfield Empowerment Zone Partnership (SEZP} where she supported the execution of the overall vision and strategy for nine level 4 middle schools particularly as it pertains to operations, finance, staffing, and public relations. Prior to her role as the Chief Administrative Officer, she worked in Human Resources and Payroll with the Springfield Public Schools where she gained experience with processes redesign, negotiations, labor and employee relations.

Beth holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Business from Johnson State College. In addition, she holds her Senior Professional in Human Resources certification from the Human Resource Certificate Institute and has completed the Massachusetts Association for School Business Officials Licensure Program.

Jackie Glasheen is the Executive Director of School Leadership, where she supervises and manages several schools across the district. She also supports the district’s middle school design and building efforts. Ms. Glasheen was appointed to the role in July 2021.

Ms. Glasheen has a wealth of experience in the Holyoke Public Schools. Since 2010, she has served as principal of Kelly and E.N. White Schools in Holyoke. From 2005-2010, Ms. Glasheen was the vice principal for Kelly and Morgan Schools. She has also been a principal mentor. 

During her time at E.N. White, Ms. Glasheen led the school’s transition from grades K-8 to an elementary school. She also launched the school’s dual language program. Students at E.N. White have shown growth during Ms. Glasheen’s time at the school, as well, with students meeting or exceeding accountability targets on MCAS testing, based on the most recently available data.

Matt Kuzmeskas is the Executive Director of Technology and Operations, where he is responsible for the development and execution of Holyoke Public School’s operational management strategy and is accountable for the operational health of the district. His role includes overseeing facilities, custodial services, maintenance, security, food service, technology, and data information systems. 

Mr. Kuzmeskas has many years of success in operations and technology management in education, particularly within Holyoke Public Schools. Most recently, Mr. Kuzmeskas served as Director of Technology and Systems for HPS, where he helped improve the district’s infrastructure through a number of strategic partnerships, including those with MIT and the Massachusetts Green High-Performance Computing Center. This work resulted in faster network speeds, better reliability for users, and improved network security, all while reducing future operating costs for the district.

In addition to his experience in operations, Mr. Kuzmeskas was the interim principal at Van Sickle Academy in Springfield and the Director of Operation and Director of Academic Achievement at Veritas Prep Middle School in Springfield.  He was a Teach For America Corps member in Rio Grande Valley of Texas where he taught 7th grade math and then went on to teach 6th and 7th grade math at IDEA Public Schools and Achievement First.  He is a graduate of UMass – Amherst and Columbia University. 

Erin Linville joined the Holyoke Public Schools in fall 2015 as the Chief of Strategy and Turnaround for the Holyoke Public Schools. She is responsible for ensuring effective, reflective, and urgent implementation of the district turnaround plan. During her tenure, she has co-led many significant initiatives, including high school redesign, moving to separate elementary and middle schools, increasing access to preschool, and leading an inclusive strategic planning process so that all stakeholders have a voice in the future of Holyoke Public Schools.

Erin Linville was formerly the Interim Executive Director and Chief of Staff of Citizen Schools Illinois and Director of Strategy and an Instructional Support Leader in the Pilsen-Little Village Network of Chicago Public Schools. Erin has also served as the Youth Director at a community center and consultant at Bain & Company. She holds a B.A. in Economics from the University of Notre Dame, MBA from Northwestern University and Master’s Degree in Educational Leadership from The Broad Center for the Management of School Systems (now at Yale University).  She is the proud (and occasionally tired) mom of three children, who are in Pre-K, elementary school, and middle school.

Steven Moguel serves in a dual role as Morgan School principal while also supporting anti-racist, inclusion, and equity work at the district level. Mr. Moguel has worked in education for 15 years, serving in various roles from paraprofessional to principal. For the past four years, he has been the building principal at Morgan School, where he has supported a culture of equity with his staff and throughout the school. Through these efforts, Morgan has continued to transform into a space where staff address personal and systemic biases, openly learn about, understand, and work to transform embedded structures that have created opportunity gaps for marginalized Holyoke students. Due to his deep commitment and proven ability to be an equity learner and leader, he will be invaluable as we continue to transform our district into an anti-racist, inclusive community where all students are valued and set up for lifeling success.

Rebecca Thompson, former McMahon Principal is the Executive Director of Academics. She oversees curriculum, instruction, and assessment from grades PreK-12 and reports to the Assistant Superintendent. Since 2020, Ms. Thompson has served as the principal of McMahon School, embracing HPS’ partnership with the Relay Graduate School of Education and leading her students and staff to improved outcomes for learners. For the last 15 years, Ms. Thompson has served as a teacher, instructional coach, and school leader supporting grades PreK-12. Her experience leading schools, developing big-picture systems for teaching and learning, and her attention to the individual needs of all students make her an excellent choice to take on the role of Executive Director of Academics for Holyoke Public Schools.