Changing what school can be: LightHouse Holyoke seeks to be beacon of light in city’s heart

November 2, 2023 : MassLive, Aprell May Munford

HOLYOKE ― By September 2025, LightHouse Holyoke hopes to show more students, and the community, what the future of school can be.

With initial drawings in hand and preparations underway to close on a four-lot parcel in January, LightHouse Holyoke is in the process of making the Sons of Zion building its permanent home.

The school’s move will bring an infusion of positive energy into a distressed area, said Executive Director Catherine Gobron.

She hopes it will become a cornerstone for additional investment in the area.

LightHouse Holyoke is an alternative learning environment structured around respect and compassion for students in grades 6-12. As of Nov. 1, 75 students are enrolled and attending classes at the STEAM Building on 208 Race St. in Holyoke.

“In our new building, we will increase enrollment to 100-120 students,” Gobron said.

The 19,000-square-foot Sons of Zion synagogue is located at 378 Maple St. in a MassDevelopment TDI (Transformational District Initiative) zone. Renovations will cost approximately $4 million.

Plans for the historic building include beautifying the structure, which has not seen upgrades since the 1960s. Renovations will reach the property’s full-sized kitchen, roof, sprinkler system, elevator and landscape, along with building compliance upgrades, said Carlos Peña, assistant director.

The project will include an urban food forest, which Gobron said will be open to the community.

The renovations are funded by grants that include a $500,000 Underutilized Properties Program award through MassDevelopment, $90,000 from the City of Holyoke, $45,000 from the WellSpring Cooperative Corp. and $600,000 from the Holyoke Redevelopment Authority.

The building will result in more space, bigger classrooms and a kitchen to prepare and share meals family-style, Gobron said.

LightHouse Holyoke opened in 2015, offering a personalized educational experience for teens seeking a new way to experience school.

“We are a 501(c)(3), and we just finished our (New England Association of Schools and Colleges) accreditation partnership in 2022,” Gobron said.

School’s approach

LightHouse Holyoke offers courses that include humanities, poverty in America, fashion and design, yoga and mindfulness and haunted history.

Additionally, an art and design “make it space” is outfitted with trade tools, technology and a 3D printer, along with a media lab and music studio equipped with guitars, pianos, beatmakers and a soundproof recording booth.

Gobron said the school is different because it provides an alternative path, one in which students are at the forefront of decision-making for their education and future.

“We partner with students to cultivate the personal resources and academic skills to create the futures of their choice,” Gobron said.

In 2017, LightHouse Holyoke began a partnership with Holyoke Public Schools to serve students who are not thriving in a traditional setting.

LightHouse Holyoke now works with Westfield, Belchertown and Northampton public school districts and is in talks with Chicopee, Gobron said. Enrollment is funded by the sending district.

More than half of the school’s students had dropped out of high school or were at high risk not to graduate, Gobron said.

In traditional educational settings, students are often not allowed the freedom to try different things because they are worried that if they fail, it may damage their grade point average, she said.

“We pigeonhole our young people because we are giving them that message and they believe what you tell them,” Gobron said.

LightHouse Holyoke believes students grow when the context, culture and community improves around them, Peña said.

“They (students) want to learn, but they need the structure and support. You can’t put a cactus in the swamp and expect it to grow,” Peña said.

Over the past eight years, the school has helped 150 students not only graduate high school, but redefine their relationship with learning.

The school’s enrollment includes private-pay families, 35 students from the Holyoke public schools, seven of which are middle schoolers, and 40 students from surrounding communities as far away as New Haven, Connecticut.