Ward 6 member says special education must be central as Holyoke regains local control

Patty Lubold, the incoming Ward 6 member of the Holyoke School Committee, said special education will be her top priority as the district resumes more local control.

Lubold said the MCAS report and district progress reviews have not adequately addressed students with disabilities. “We mentioned that 1 in 3 students are on an IEP, and that whole report and the progress didn't touch about disability students with disabilities at all,” she said, arguing that the district treats special education as an add‑on rather than a core part of school planning.

She urged strengthening local stakeholder groups — she named the Federation for Children with Special Needs, MPAC and CPAC — to provide the board better insight into families’ needs. Lubold also described the need to scale effective classroom practices so they are not isolated to individual teachers or schools.

Lubold advocated for universal design in classrooms and for expanding how students demonstrate mastery beyond a single test metric. “Just because a student is not prolific at writing an essay, but could show mastery by doing a podcast or by doing a PowerPoint, does that mean that they haven't met the skills required? I don't think that that does,” she said.

Lubold framed these aims as part of a larger effort to translate local authority into measurable outcomes for students when the board returns to more control.