Around Massachusetts, Monday is the start of the new school year in many districts. That includes Holyoke Public Schools, which for the first time in a decade begins the year under local control .

In 2015 the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education took over the district because of chronic student under performance.

At a well attended meet-and-greet last week at Holyoke's E.N. White Elementary School, parent Christina Schilling said as her son gets ready to attend kindergarten, she hadn't really been thinking about the district's status in receivership or local control.

"Not in particular," Schilling said. "Sam's a true covid baby, so it was just a matter of getting through that really difficult time and here we are five years later [going into kindergarten], an

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