By JAMES PENTLAND

HOLYOKE — While acknowledging that city schools have made progress since entering receivership almost nine years ago, state Education Commissioner Jeffrey Riley says more is needed before the district can emerge from state control.

In a Friday letter to Mayor Joshua Garcia, Riley said his department would like to “further confer with the Receiver and the School Committee” on how to sustain the district’s progress.

“To allow for those conversations to proceed, at this time I am deferring a formal determination on your petition,” Riley wrote.

Garcia called Riley’s decision “confusing and deeply disappointing.”

“The receivership message should have been a resounding ‘yes’ with a commitment to confer on a reasonable timeline for transition to local control,” Garcia said in a statement.

Instead, he stated, it was a message “with no plan, no benchmarks, no firm commitment.” He suggested that the commissioner and the Board of Education “have no idea what they’re doing or what they want to do with the receivership situation.”

Receiver/Superintendent Anthony Soto formally petitioned the state Department of Elementary and Secondary Education to begin the process of releasing the school district from receivership in a Dec. 21 letter to Riley.

The petition followed a unanimous School Committee vote in September in favor of the action. In October, Riley told a contingent from the School Committee that “the climate was favorable” for ending receivership and said he would issue a decision by springtime.

Soto’s letter highlighted the district’s improved performance, including an increase in the graduation rate of nearly 15 points in recent years, up to 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.

Soto also outlined a turnaround plan to return Holyoke schools to local control.

Garcia said he and School Committee Vice Chair Erin Brunelle spoke to Education Secretary Patrick Tutwiler and Lt. Gov. Kim Driscoll at the weekend, and they both committed to work to define a path forward for Holyoke to resume local control of it schools.

“I’m proud of the work our School Committee and superintendent have done on behalf of Holyoke’s students and families,” Garcia stated. “That work will continue, and the day will come when we regain local control.”

The state education board voted to place Holyoke public schools into receivership in April 2015. The district’s on-time graduation rate was the lowest of any K-12 system in the state, and its dropout rate among the highest.

Soto, a graduate of Holyoke public schools who was appointed receiver in 2021, is the third receiver/superintendent to head the city’s schools.

Holyoke is one of three school districts under state receivership, along with Lawrence and Southbridge.