Holyoke Unites
Minutes of the Design/Plan Change Team for June 2 and June 15, 2011

Members of the DPC team:

1. David Dupont (Holyoke), School Superintendent

2. Elaine Pluta (Holyoke), Mayor

3. Eileen Cavanaugh (Holyoke), Executive Director Boys & Girls Club

4. Betty Medina Lichtenstein (South Hadley), Executive Director Enlace

5. Kathy Dunn (South Hadley), President Holyoke Teachers Union

6. Jay Breines (Northampton), Executive Director Holyoke Health Center

7. Andrew Melendez (Holyoke)

8. Steve Huntley (So Deerfield), Executive Director VOC

9. John Foley (Holyoke), owner Springdale Education Center

10. Yanina Vargas(?),Vice-President Student Affairs, Holyoke Community College (appointed by Bill Messner , President of HCC)

• At the first meeting all were present except for Yanina Vargas.

• At the second meeting David DuPont was represented by Doug Arnold. All others were present at least part of the time except for Yanina Vargas.

• The Design/Plan/Change Team has met twice since it was created it at the May 10 meeting of Holyoke Unites.

• In our first meeting, we struggled to make sense of our task and decided we wanted to hear in our second meeting the essence of the October 2010 DESE (MA Dept of Elementary and Secondary Education) review and the Holyoke School Department’s response.

• In our second meeting we first discussed the DESE report and understood that DESE’s key concern is not graduation but achievement, that even high performing schools have low performing groups, and that the gap between grade 8 and grade 9 is huge. One key current drive of the School department is to align the curriculum across all schools.

• Our second topic was again on how we proceed. We looked at a proposal from Betty & Jerry to frame our work in five areas and came out of that discussion with a decision to focus on just one area: models of change. What are models outside of Holyoke that might be effectively applied here? What models and/or past plans from within Holyoke could be implemented or spread? If we could unify around a model of change then we could collaboratively move the city in that direction.

• As a first step, we agreed to attend the Friday June 24th 11AM-2PM presentation by Dr Ramon Borges Mendez at Enlace. He was integral to Worcester’s successful bid for their Promise

Neighborhood grant. Promise Neighborhood and the Harlem Children’s Zone on which it is based is one of the models for us to explore. Dr. Roman Borges Mendez and his graduate students also researched other models that may be appropriate for Holyoke and they also researched conditions and dynamics in the Flats.

• We will use the information and inspiration from Dr Ramon’s presentation to begin our exploration of models at out next Design/Plan Change Team meetings on June 29, 3:30-5:30pm and July 12 9:30-11:30am.