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Date: 2/2/2022
HOLYOKE – The Holyoke School Committee met to discuss a variety of agenda items including middle school grade reconfiguration and COVID-19 on Jan. 24.
Currently, Holyoke has three schools serving grades 5-8 and two schools serving grades 6-8. The district has been focusing on reconfiguring these schools and shifting to the distinct elementary, middle and high school model.
“This isn’t a new conversation. We have been talking about reconfiguring our grade spans and moving to an elementary, middle and high school model for at least the last four years,” said Superintendent/Receiver Anthony Soto.
With the reconfiguration, there would be two middle schools of grades 6-8 with about 550 students each. This would allow the existing plans for a new middle school building to be utilized, would integrate dual language students into the middle schools and would allow grade 5 students to remain in elementary school.
According to Soto, with the reconfiguration there would be no more co-locations – like the current situation with Holyoke STEM Academy calling the Holyoke High Dean Campus home – and it would help with collaboration and coordination with the high school.
He also emphasized the importance of the new configurations being equitable and inclusive.
“What we want to do when we build that vision of where we’re going is make sure that there is alignment in educational programming and how we will place students in schools. Like I said, equity is going to be at the forefront of the decisions that we make,” said Soto.
This would include making sure that not all special education or English language learner students are placed in one school over the other. Possible timelines for the reconfiguration depend on whether the district will move fast or slow. According to Soto, if they move faster in the process they could be done by 2023 and if slower it would likely be 2026.
He said that they need to provide a solution that is financially sustainable to the city and that they will be looking for feedback as well.
“We want to provide an academic environment and experience that prepares our students for high school and beyond,” said Soto.
The discussion then shifted into a COVID-19 update. Holyoke Public Schools had two weeks off for winter break which Soto said was extremely helpful in preventing illness and absences upon return.
“Having those two weeks off really helped us get back to a place where people that were going to be sick and got sick were able to get healthy before coming back to school when they did,” he said.
However, several nurses were out sick at the beginning of January. Soto said that the district was preparing to use snow days due to the lack of coverage but were able to partner with Action Ambulance to provide support.
Emergency medical technicians were able to help with triaging students, COVID-19 rapid tests, calling families, answering phones and more.
Soto also said that Holyoke will be looking into eliminating their Test and Stay program and switching to the new state at-home testing program, and more information will be distributed to families soon.
According to a press release from the Baker-Polito administration, the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) and the Department of Public Health (DPH), the state updated the statewide school testing policy to allow districts to receive at-home rapid antigen tests for weekly use by all participating staff and students. Gov. Charlie Baker had recently announced the state had secured 26 million rapid tests from the medical supplier iHealth, which would be prioritized for K-12 schools and childcare settings and delivered over the nest three months. Through this program, according to information provided by DESE and the DPH, at-home tests will be shipped directly to school districts for distribution and are packaged in kits that contain two tests. Students and staff who participate will receive one kit every two weeks to test themselves. Families will need to inform their school if they want at-home rapid antigen tests sent home with students. If an individual tests positive at home, they should inform their school, which will report positive cases to DESE as part of the weekly COVID-19 reporting already in place.
While Test and Stay will cease, schools must continue to participate in symptomatic and/or pooled testing in order to take part in the new program.
Soto said this new program would help eliminate some of the extra stress and job responsibilities nurses have taken on since the beginning of the pandemic.
“It’ll allow our nurses to focus on supporting students and families that are sick and just reinforcing our protocols in our schools,” said Soto.
Holyoke also continues to be behind in statewide vaccination rates. The district has hosted several vaccination clinics to try and combat this.
Kelly School will be hosting COVID-19 vaccination clinics on both Feb. 10 and March 3.
“That is something that we continue to promote is all of the vaccination clinics that are offered across the city,” said Soto.
Managing Editor Chris Maza contributed to this report.