HOLYOKE — The state’s education commissioner recently told a contingent from the city’s School Committee that “the climate was favorable” for ending receivership, according to committee member Erin Brunelle.

Following up on the committee’s petition last month, Mayor Joshua Garcia, Brunelle and two other committee members met recently with Education Commissioner Jeffrey Riley to discuss ending state receivership of the city’s schools.

“I was encouraged by the commissioner’s response as we made our case,” Garcia said in a statement. “To be out of receivership will be an affirmation of the work of Superintendent Anthony Soto and a renewal of pride and engagement for the people of Holyoke who have been passionate about taking back our schools.”

Garcia said he hoped that Holyoke could begin the next school year free of receivership. Riley told the contingent that he would issue a decision by springtime.

The Department of Elementary and Secondary Education voted to designate Holyoke Public Schools chronically underperforming in April 2015, after many schools in the district consistently rated in the bottom 10th percentile of student achievement statewide. Since then, the district has operated under three receivers — whose role is to oversee a turnaround plan — including Soto, the current receiver. Soto, a graduate of Holyoke public schools, met with Riley in May to present improvements the district has made in the past eight years.

Among those changes, the graduation rate increased by nearly 15 points in recent years, reaching 74.9% in the 2021-22 academic year. Growth was most notable among English learners, who saw a 30-point increase in graduation rates, and students with disabilities, who saw a 27-point improvement.

But Holyoke continues to perform poorly on standardized testing. More than 50% of elementary and middle school students did not meet expectations on the 2023 MCAS English/language arts, mathematics and science exams. In the state’s 2023 accountability report — which considers MCAS scores, graduation rates and attendance, among other metrics — city schools were still ranked nearly 30 points below the 75% threshold to be considered as meeting targets.

“Receivership was a necessary tool at the beginning,” Garcia told the Gazette at the September School Committee meeting. “Now, are we at a place where things dramatically improved? No, absolutely not, there’s still a lot of work to do. But there were a lot of gaps that were closed.”

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DESE will do a full review of Holyoke’s performance data before it makes a recommendation to the commissioner as to whether the state should release the school district from receivership, said Glenn Koocher of the Massachusetts Association of School Committees. There is mounting interest in releasing Holyoke public schools, he noted, citing Gov. Maura Healey’s pledge on the campaign trail to “demand a plan day one for getting Holyoke out of receivership.”

Holyoke is one of three school districts under state receivership, along with Lawrence and Southbridge. All three districts have remained under state control for more than five years.