Page 45 - BusinessWest August 4, 2025

Soto, adding that he was working in Springfield when the Holyoke
schools went into receivership, but was well aware of the factors
that led to that decision.
With receivership, the receiver essentially takes on the duties of
both the superintendent and school board, said Soto, which elimi-
nates bureaucracy and politics, but places an enormous amount of
power in the hands of one person, which may or may not work out
depending on how committed that individual is and how much lead-
ership that office provides.
How Holyoke emerged from receivership a decade later is an
intriguing story, one that involves what both Garcia and Soto called
a true partnership with the state, and especially with Russell John-
ston, the former interim commissioner of ESE, to create a blueprint
where none had existed before — and, even more importantly, to fol-
low that blueprint.
“He came to every meeting of the local control subcommittee of
the school board to map out a plan, and once we mapped out a plan
with clear benchmarks, we executed,” Garcia explained, adding that
this execution prompted the state to remove a provisional transi-
tion to local control this spring and make it permanent. “We hit our
benchmarks, and we did what we said we were going to do.”
That sentiment applies to everything from progress in the class-
rooms to a capacity-building plan that would assure a smooth tran-
sition to local control and enable the city to hit the ground running
on July 1, to a commitment to strong, local governance that would
hopefully prevent a return to the conditions that put Holyoke in
receivership.
As he talked about those improvements registered in the class-
room, Soto said there have been many, including curriculum chang-
es, a sharp reduction in drop-out rates, and improvement in gradu-
ation rates, attributable to creative efforts to keep students from
falling through the cracks.
“Overall, we have shifted our mindset as a district that we are
not giving up on our kids and doing everything we can to re-engage
them when they are at risk of dropping out,” he said, citing ini-
tiatives such as the so-called Opportunity Academies. These are
designed for students who are “over-aged and under-credited,” said
Soto, adding that, in the past, these students would just drop out,
but now they can re-engage through a more personalized path that
enables them to attain credits and graduate.
There has also been what he called a revival at his alma mater,
Dean Tech. “When I first got here, there were 150 kids at Dean,
and it was a dumping ground and at risk of closing,” he told Busi-
nessWest. “We have since invested in Dean and completely brought
it to life; we now have over 400 kids attending, with more than 100
on the waitlist.”
Another dramatic change was the restructuring of the city’s
schools (accompanied by rezoning), moving away from the long-
entrenched K-8 model to a middle-school model, punctuated by
the building of the new William R. Peck Middle School, which will
serve 550 students across grades 6-8.
Grade Expectations
As he offered BusinessWest a tour of the new facility, where con-
struction crews were working on the finishing touches, Soto said
there were certainly some growing pains with the restructuring and
rezoning, but those changes are starting to pay dividends.
Garcia agreed, and said the building of Peck, as well as other
investments made in city schools, represent a change of tone within
Holyoke and provide more evidence that the city is ready, willing,
and able to manage its schools.
“The fact that we got unanimous support from the City Coun-
cil for that project ... that never happened before,” he said. “I was
on the school board when I was 23, 24 years old. The amount
of investment we’re doing in our public school buildings, includ-
ing building the new middle school, was never done before; it was
always ‘let’s kick the can down the road.’ It wasn’t prioritized.”
There are many new priorities, said Soto, citing, among them,
professional development and other measures to attract and retain
teachers and principals and maintain the strong levels of leadership
that helped enable the
city’s schools to emerge
from receivership.
“One of my theories
“When I first
got here, there
were 150 kids
at Dean, and it
was a dumping
ground and at
risk of closing.
We have since
invested in Dean
and completely
brought it to
life; we now have
over 400 kids
attending, with
more than 100 on
the waitlist.”
Holyoke
Continued on page 48 >>
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