HOLYOKE – Community conversations are underway around rezoning efforts for Holyoke Public Schools (HPS) and will continue until the end of October.

HPS Chief of Strategy and Turnaround Erin Linville met with families on Sept. 14 at the Kelley School to discuss any questions and opinions on what families are looking for in the rezoning process. Linville said there were 50 adult participants and 60 children at the meeting and while not everyone shared the same opinions, it was clear that everyone was thinking about the children first.

“We want to hear from as many people as we can before we make final decisions about how to rezone our district,” said Linville. “More than half of all students in grades pre-K-8 will attend a new school next year when the district completes its transition to separate elementary and middle schools and redraws school boundary lines for fall 2023.”

The big-picture decision to rezone was made after many years of soliciting stakeholder input, innovating and planning according to HPS. The next step is development of a concrete plan for how each individual school will be configured.

“While there are significant benefits to rezoning, we also understand that change is disruptive and can raise feelings of uncertainty,” said Linville. “We believe it’s important to seek out and incorporate the voices of those impacted. That’s why we have designed an inclusive process and why we continue to offer many opportunities for our families, community members, staff and students to learn more about rezoning and to offer input.”

On Sept. 12, district leaders met with about 120 people during three meetings – two for staff during the school day and one for the rezoning task force members. The next day called for two more listening sessions with staff during the day, including one early morning meeting that drew 50 participants. Seven more meetings were scheduled for later in the week including the public meeting on Sept. 14.

HPS staff were also informed of a staff reassignment policy where the district will collaborate with teachers and other school staff on where they will best fit in the district and work with them on second options if their first assigned school is an issue for them. Linville said while this was briefly discussed, many of the conversations have been rooted in what is the best interest for students.

Currently HPS has 11 schools with pre-K-8 students made of nine different grade configurations. The plan by fall 2023 is to rezone students across nine schools (six elementary and three middle schools) and to have all elementary schools be pre-K/K-5 and all middle schools being grades 6-8.

One of the key guidelines for rezoning have been established as designing schools that put student needs first and prioritize money spent on instruction. This means having sufficient classes, students and teachers per grade level to allow for differentiation and support and teacher collaboration. It also focuses on not operating more schools and school buildings than necessary because the money is spent on electricity and non-instructional staff to keep the building running.

Another key guideline for rezoning according to the district is ensuring equitable access to special programs. This includes students requiring specialized services have access in their neighborhood school or through a specialized program. It also includes dual language in elementary school should be in at least two schools in different areas of the city and pre-K classes are located at many schools across Holyoke.

These prioritized guidelines for rezoning match scenarios for the different middle school buildings of Donahue, Kelly and Sullivan. The ongoing question for the district is whether to move middle school students to one of these schools following the closure of Peck Middle School. Each of these school buildings will offer the same number of classrooms with the differences being from a variety of things like location, space, cafeteria size, gyms and libraries.

The evaluations of these buildings show options for which buildings to prioritize in meeting the needs the district has identified. According to Linville, any of the three options will result in 62 to 67 percent of students being moved into a new school setting.

“I’m not trying to be an alarmist when I say it but we’re trying to show people the impact,” Linville said. “Every option that we’re considering is substantially better. They’re all pretty comparable options so some of it’s going to come down to just people’s preferences for where elementary and middle schools are.”

Linville said the importance of connectiveness to the new school if a student has to change has been a consistent point brought up in discussions. As the official rezoning comes closer, the district is planning to find ways for families to get to know their new school community.

“Schools are really foundational elements of a neighborhood and community and it’s about way more than a building,” Linville said. “It’s about the connections people have within the building so to the extent possible we can keep students and staff together as they switch schools, people are interested in us being able to do that.”

Linville said families will know by the end of October which schools will be middle schools and then will know by the end of November the exact zoning map for where kids live and what school they will attend. The first round of feedback now is focused on which schools should be middle schools.

The second round of feedback will be in November where focus will shift to the drawing of maps and deciding where students will attend. Once the middle schools are decided on, refining the zoning maps will be easier for the district according to Linville.

With ongoing talks about securing funds from the Massachusetts School Building Authority (MSBA) within Holyoke to build a new middle school, Linville said it complicates the planning process, but they have scenarios planned if it were to become a reality.

“When we talk about what school looks like we’re really talking about what it looks like in 2026, the earliest a new middle school building would be built. We don’t want to rezone in 2023 and have to do it three years later. That would be too disruptive,” Linville said.

The Peck Middle School building will eventually be vacated and would be the potential site for a new school building. Linville said students who will eventually end up at a new Peck building will be at either Metcalf or Holyoke STEM which are currently functioning buildings and serve grades 6-8. In 2026, the schools would combine to be one school together in the new building.

If a new middle school building is not able to be built, students at some point will move from Metcalf and Holyoke STEM into the current Peck building.

“It’s really up to City Council and the [MSBA] if we’re going to get funding approval,” Linville said.
City Council is expected to take a vote on this proposal sometime in 2023. Linville said they had to plan to vacate the Peck building because otherwise it would result in even more transitions for students. She added it’s been suggested to keep Peck open during construction, but it is not a feasible option for students.

There will be three more Family and Community conversations, two will be virtual. On Sept. 29 families are invited to Holyoke High School North for a 5:30 p.m. meeting. Free transportation from Donahue and Sullivan schools will be available and pick up times will be announced soon from HPS.
The first virtual conversation took place on Sept. 21 at 9 a.m. the second will be hosted on Oct. 11 at 5:30 p.m. Registration for the virtual meetings can be found at https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScjh6vw8E649kPPY05Z81aFht3O73x9iS9o9d19fj98wwcNNw/viewform.
Linville expects to use the meetings as a chance to inform people of the ongoing work and get input on what plan families feel is the best plan for Holyoke going forward.

“We are excited about continuing our move to separate elementary and middle schools,” said Superintendent Anthony Soto. “This change is in response to significant community input over the last six years and tightens up efforts that had already started. It will help us better prepare students academically and socially, offer a more equitable experience across our schools, and dedicate more resources to instruction. Participating in community conversations is also an important way to learn more, ask questions and offer opinions.”