The Ties Between Dean and Holyoke High
September 10, 2021
William J. Dean Technical High School, first changed to Holyoke High School South Campus and now known as Holyoke High School Dean Campus, had made a decision to become a singular school back in the 2019-2020 school year in the hopes of creating a single school, and joining the high school community together.
The initial plan was to create academies within Holyoke high school north campus starting freshman year. The academies were put into sections; performing & media arts, technology engineering & design and medical life sciences with teachers directed to lead each academy.
As it is now the 2021-2022 school year, the students haven’t felt much of a change in the two school communities. Sports teams between the two schools are as competitive as always and the school colors haven’t changed across both schools. To add onto this the students of both schools have yet to see each other.
This decision was spread throughout the community with mixed reactions as to the way the schools futures were headed. Some former students were less than happy with the news while others thought the direction the school was headed in was good.
Us as the Holyoke high students have not had any contact nor events being held with the Dean campus. We have remained separated from the school and are beginning to wonder what the point of this change was. It seems like a publicity thing rather than the change of the schools future and students well being. We haven’t heard about any future changes being made or actions taking place. Should we just go back to how the old HHS was or would we have even noticed a difference?
Questions I have asked a student who was here during the reform :
Do you feel like the Dean and HHS emergence affected anything ? Did you feel any change?
Sage: No they said we would be together at graduation but we weren’t even together and then Covid happened so I don’t know if anything really changed.
Do you feel like the school is more connected now?
Sage: With Dean? Dean doesn’t want anything to do with us. So no, not at all.
The last question: Do you think Dean and Holyoke high have impacted each other in some type of way?
Sage: Most of the individuals we knew went to Dean and we don’t see them at all.
Will the school ever bring up their decision? Will they take action to what they have done and said they would do? Or will both schools and students continue to wonder when the change and reforms will actually be done?
Alan Gates • Oct 15, 2021 at 8:45 pm
Just reading this for the first time and although I absolutely appreciate the topic, it would be great if you want to circle back and connect with some Dean Seniors, Alumni and Staff, maybe look a little deeper and I think the narrative to this story would change and also reflect what really happened and why both High Schools are moving in the direction they are. I am not sure if you will get this, but if you do, send me an email and I’d be glad to connect. agates@hps.holyoke.ma.us
Anonymous • Sep 13, 2021 at 8:31 pm
I’m a dean student and personally we want it to go back to being William J. Dean Teach High School, us Dean students don’t like being “purple and white” or “Holyoke knights” we’re fine with our hawk and our black and gold, we don’t really care for HHS, and personally I truly see no change whatsoever, and from what I’ve heard HHS students want nothing to do with Dean Tech, HHS and DT are complete different schools that don’t match energies, “uniting” was pointless and it should go fully back to how it was. When a lot of us signed up back in 2018 we signed up for William J. Dean Tech, not HHS Dean/South campus, and as stated the schools are way too competitive against each other, there was nothing good about the unison, nothing but complains heard left and right, “Knighthawks” became a mascot for two weeks in Dean, we were forced to use black and white as the school colors, and from my friends in Holyoke high I was told this was not a thing, communication between the schools did not exist which was very conflicting and there was no way to make progress.
(I would like to be anonymous)