April 28th, 2025
Dear HTA Members,
To start, we share your confusion, frustration, anger, and indignation at the email earlier this evening from Acting Commissioner Tutwiler. While we had a lot of communication and several meetings with DESE staff reviewing Appendix A of the turnaround plan, we have been completely ignored in sharing the experiences, voices, and concerns of educators in Holyoke. We understand that the provisions announced today are very likely going to undermine Holyoke’s ability to attract and retain highly qualified educators as this plan completely nullifies educator voices in major decisions regarding our working conditions and student learning conditions.
There are three things that this decision makes clear to us:
- DESE has ignored our repeated attempts to explain to them why these provisions are harmful to both staff and students in Holyoke. DESE has also ignored our repeated calls for a special school committee meeting where the public could comment on exit assurances and the process of what leaving state receivership should look like.
- The HTA was told (in writing) that there would be a “special school committee meeting” that would have public comment and we would be informed of that date. We were never informed of this date and instead were blindsided by getting these exit assurances sent to us this evening.
- Lastly, we know that these proposed exit assurances maintain some of the worst aspects of state receivership (including the school calendar, length of the school day, professional compensation, evaluations, and the grievance procedure) and will serve as severe constraints on our collective bargaining rights, effectively ignoring the best interests of our members and the young people of Holyoke.
Even though the email from DESE says these exit assurances were created in conjunction with the HTA, let us be very clear: we did not and we do not approve these exit assurances and we believe fundamentally that they will be harmful to anyone who cares about providing quality education to the young people of Holyoke.
This news is disheartening, disappointing, and demoralizing. That does not mean we are done fighting. This gives us even more fuel to show our unity, solidarity, and righteous indignation during our district-wide actions on Thursday May 1st and at our next bargaining session on May 15th. Let’s show the district and DESE how united a front we are.
We do this for us. We do this for our students. We do this because we know we are on the side of justice and solidarity.
Solidarity,
HTA Executive Board
five brave HTA educators