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Date: 5/31/2022
HOLYOKE – The Holyoke Public Schools (HPS) will host an in-person event on June 8 at Heritage Park, the final of three scheduled conversations on the district’s ongoing strategic planning and rezoning initiatives.
The first meeting was for HPS employees, followed by a meeting for HPS students, families and community partners where participants were encouraged to ask questions and provide input on the key aspects of each initiative.
HPS has already brought together members of the Strategic Planning Advisory Committee and members of the Strategic Planning Steering Committee to meet regularly – from late March until the end of May – on crafting the school’s strategic plan under the consultant Angela King Smith, a partner with Education Resource Strategies (ERS) in Watertown.
According to the school district, previously identified strategic priorities are centered around each school having the resources, support and focus needed to develop and implement a highly effective school improvement plan. A goal within the strategic priorities identified for teaching and learning is to dramatically increase reading, math and science proficiency for all students.
HPS Chief of Strategy and Turnaround Erin Linville has been working with involved parties on establishing focus for the strategic plan. She has also been at the first two community conversations and said the feedback they received was valuable as they look to make improvements to their draft.
Linville said this has been a year-long process and the parties are currently developing a strategic plan based on the feedback so far received.
“Sometimes you just need a fresh set of eyes from people who are engaged, and they might point out something,” Linville said.
Linville said the first meeting had 45 people attend while the second had over 20. She added the meetings were affirming as there was a lot of positive feedback related to the equity commitments outlined in the current strategic plan.
One comment received during a meeting was concern from a parent who wished there was more mention of the math curriculum within the strategic plan. This is the type of feedback welcomed by HPS as they focus on crafting the best possible strategic plan for the schools.
“There are some things that it’s like, we might’ve just missed and this opportunity to share the draft of the strategic plan is helping us so when we share the final plan we don’t have as many misses,” Linville said. “It shines a spotlight on some things that we might have missed.”
Linville also said there has been much community feedback regarding the mission statement and its language regarding explicitly naming college as an outcome for students. Linville shared that there has been much debate as some feel there are more options after public education than just college and the language within the mission statement should reflect that. She added more than 250 people have responded on this specifically as of two days before the survey sent out on May 27.
“That mission statement’s really important. It shows it explains our purpose and having a common understanding and commitment around our purpose is really important,” Linville said. “It’s just really great to have a community that’s interested in helping us get it right.”
Linville said the two committees and other HPS staff working on the strategic plan will take the time before the June 8 meeting to reflect and make changes based on the input received from their first two meetings. They will then bring the latest version of the draft to the June 8 meeting for more feedback before working toward finalizing the plan for later in the year.
Linville added it will be a living document that HPS plans on reviewing through a quarterly process in order to provide flexibility to the document and for any possible changes in the future.
The other half of these meetings has been focused on the rezoning efforts and boundary re-alignment developed by the school district. There currently is an inconsistency school by school at the elementary level through what grades are in the school.
There are currently 11 different schools with children in grades K-8 made up of nine different configurations of grades. There is a pre-K through third grade, through fourth grade, through fifth grade, through seventh grade and through eighth grades alone. There is also configurations of Grades 6-8, pre-K to seventh grade, and a pre-K through fifth grade plus an eighth grade.
The boundary realignment will serve to make Grades K-5 consistent throughout Holyoke elementary schools, with some having a pre-K program, depending on space available. The middle schools will only be Grades 6-8, and Linville hopes the new school building will provide a helpful solution to making sure there aren’t grade inconsistencies like they have had.
The hope for the HPS is to redistrict and rezone all schools that serve pre-K through Grade 8 through engaging in extensive community discussions and analysis with the support of expert consultants. They are focused on identifying which schools will remain elementary and which will be middle schools, what programs at each school, which schools would close – if any and when – which students attend each school and which principal and other staff will be at each school.
Linville hopes to see more community members at the June 8 meeting at Heritage Park. The meeting will be from 4:30 to 5:30 p.m. and residents are invited to attend for continued discussion and a look at changes made from the last meeting.
“We want to help people paint the picture of what it will look like. That will allow people to engage in it and feel hopeful and excited about what’s to come. It’s worth the short-term inconvenience because what we’re going towards is better.” Linville said.
Linville added the Special Education Parent Advisory Committee is hosting an end of the year party at the Merry-Go-Round at Heritage Park from 5 to 7 p.m. She hopes families in attendance join the meeting then enjoy some time at the Merry-Go-Round for food.