Steve Zrike, a school superintendent from eastern Massachusetts will be the receiver for Holyoke’s under-performing district starting July 6th. It’s been just over a month since state education officials voted to take over the city’s schools.

State Education Commissioner Mitchell Chester introduced Zrike before a small group of elected officials and his family at Holyoke High School. Zrike, who grew up in a bilingual household,  started his introduction in Spanish and then continued, in English.

“I do not come to Holyoke with any preconceived notions of what should be done,” Zrike says. “I promise to listen and to learn from you, and especially from the recently constituted local stakeholders group, in order to assess what is and what is not working.”

Like outgoing Holyoke school superintendent Sergio Paez, Zrike has a doctorate in education from Harvard. He’s credited with leading turn-around efforts at schools in Boston and Chicago. In suburban Wakefield, Mass., where he’s finishing up the school year as superintendent, Zrike launched a ‘parent university’ to provide families with workshops on a range of topics. He  echoes what countless others have said over and over during the state take over process– families are necessary to student learning in Holyoke.

“I think it’s imperative on myself and my team, to really engage our families,”Zrike says.  He says it helps that he speaks Spanish and can communicate with families, “but it’s got to be more than that. It’s got to be a concerted effort and a strategy to get our families and our community to be part of this turn around process in Holyoke.”

Zrike offers no details yet on his plan, and when asked if an outside company could still be hired to assist in his efforts, he didn’t completely rule out the possibility.

Zrike’s appointment was kept well under wraps. Many of those stakeholders didn’t even know a decision has been made until an hour before Zrike held his first press conference, including Holyoke School Committee member John Brunelle, who was opposed to state receivership. Over the last almost couple of years, Brunelle says Superintendent  Paez had been blunt about the drastic changes needed, to avoid receivership, and the district under Paez was was on the right track.

“The reality is we should have started those changes 12 years ago. But here we are and we have to deal with it,” Brunelle says. And he added, “So we’re going to invite them in, but want to do whatever we can to get them out as soon as possible. ”

Zrike’s job as receiver was announced just a day after almost 280 students graduated from Holyoke High School, and Brunelle eagerly pointed out, about 25 percent of them earned high honors and that numerous students were going on to college, and some to ivy league schools.