Editorial

There have been a lot of good stories to come out of Holyoke in recent years, including a wave of entrepreneurship, an emerging clean-tech sector, a cannabis sector that isn’t what it once was but is still prominent, and a more vibrant downtown.

But there was always a cloud hanging over the city in the form of an school system in receivership, a radical step taken by the state when a system is chronically underperforming, local leadership is ineffective, and there is essentially no hope and few alternatives.

This is where the Holyoke schools were a decade ago, with one of the state’s lowest graduation rates, highest drop-out rates, poor MCAS scores, and leadership that seemed unwilling or unable (actually, a mix of both) to do anything about it.

Receivership, as we noted, is a dramatic step. Only three systems across the state have been put into receivership — Lawrence, Holyoke, and Southbridge. And until July 1, no community had emerged from receivership, until Holyoke managed to achieve that feat.

It did so by achieving progress on many on those aforementioned fronts, including graduation rates that have soared from 52% to 77% — not where anyone wants them, but much better than they were.

But mostly, this was accomplished through a commitment to regaining local control — Mayor Joshua Garcia is firm in his belief that receivership should be temporary and that a community should run its own schools, and he’s right about that — and also through partnering with the state, and, most importantly, showing the kind of leadership that was, quite frankly, missing a decade ago in the years leading up to receivership.

Garcia and Anthony Soto — the interim school superintendent and, now, former receiver — like to say there was no blueprint for coming out of receivership, and that they believe they have created one. Its fine points includes everything from continued strong involvement from the city’s school board (even though it had no real power with a receiver in place); investments in schools, such as the new Peck Middle School; hard but necessary decisions, such as rezoning and restructuring away from the K-8 model; and programs designed to keep students engaged and motivated not to drop out.

And, don’t forget, all this happened with the pandemic serving to stifle momentum, isolate students, and add to an already deep list of societal problems that include poverty, homelessness, and more.

Make no mistake, these problems still exist. They make it difficult for students to focus on learning, and equally difficult to attract and retain the talent needed in the classrooms and administrative offices to provide a quality education. And there is much work still to be done to improve MCAS scores and further improve those graduation rates.

But Holyoke has taken a huge step forward, one that bodes well for the community and its business community. The challenge now is to maintain the current momentum — but the black cloud is gone.