After five months of discussions, research, and planning, members of the Holyoke School Committee on Monday, August 19, voted unanimously to adopt a Capacity Building Plan as the next step towards ending receivership in the district. The Capacity Building Plan spells out concrete steps and timelines to ensure the district’s elected board is well prepared to assume its role in four major areas of school district governance when receivership is ultimately ended. These four areas are:
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Superintendent evaluation (with a focus on continuous improvement and collaboration)
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Superintendent hiring
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Finance and budget
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Policy development
HPS will post the full plan on the district website on Thursday, August 22.
The Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education placed Holyoke Public Schools in receivership in April 2015. A turnaround plan was released in October 2015, with renewals released in October 2018 and December 2022.
On March 25, Russell Johnston, the state’s acting commissioner of elementary and secondary education, informed the School Committee that he was committed to helping Holyoke develop a clear path forward to resume local control and end receivership of the local school system. Since then, the Local Control Subcommittee met twice a month with Commissioner Johnston to map out the plan released earlier this week.
The School Committee’s next step over the coming two months is to recruit community members willing to serve on a Community Advisory Team, which will officially begin its work in November. The Community Advisory Team will support the School Committee’s planning and implementation of the Superintendent hiring and evaluation processes, as well as ensure robust stakeholder engagement with the continuous improvement of HPS.
Commissioner Johnston commended members of the Local Control Subcommittee—and the full School Committee—for their dedication to this process. Going forward, the subcommittee will meet every two months, including in September, November, and January. Later this fall, Commissioner Johnston is expected to announce his timeline for formally ending receivership and returning HPS to local control.