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Holyoke Teachers Association President Gus Morales, one of the teachers non-renewed.

Education Commissioner Mitchell Chester issued a statement addressing the non-renewals, says decisions were made by local education officials. Read more here.

HOLYOKE -- As the end of the school year approaches, more than 100 of Holyoke Public Schools teachers are on the market looking for new work or choosing to retire.

Across the district, 78 teachers have been asked not to return to Holyoke schools next year. 54 are teachers with non-professional status, meaning they haven't held their position for more than three years, were non-renewed. Four teachers with professional status were also let go.

When asked why many were non-renewed, Jackie Reis, media relations coordinator for the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, spoke generally. "Some don't have the right license, others may have a one-year contract filling in for another teacher."

Districts are not required by law to give teachers a reason for non-renewal when he or she lacks professional status.

Open positions are expected to be filled by the start of the school year.

Another 20 teachers worked in the district without accreditation but were hired for their work experience. They were hired with a waiver that allowed them to get around the accreditation process. Many of the teachers working with a waiver were at Dean Technical High School. Their waivers expire this summer and have not been renewed. Reis said there's a chance they could reapply to work within the district.

These teachers are 16 percent of the total district teaching staff in 2015.

Holyoke Teachers Association President Gus Morales said another 30 teachers have announced plans to retire or leave the district for other teaching opportunities. He said many have chosen to take early retirement with a pension cut and others will move to another district because of uncertainty under state receivership.

"We're losing some fantastic teachers," Morales said. "I thought morale was low last year but it is lower this year."

He added that he expects more teachers to resign during the summer as they're hired to work in other districts.

The number of teachers non-renewed this year is lower than last summer when 124 teachers were non-renewed or terminated. The number of teachers between 2014 and 2015 decreased from 575 to 488.

Student enrollment has remained stagnant, at 5573 for the past two years. Cuts were made last year to close a $4.5 million budget deficit.

Members of the state receivership team will host a meeting on Monday to discuss the upcoming school year's budget, which is expected to discuss closing another budget deficit.

Morales is one of the teachers that received a non-renewal. He is a grades six and eight English teacher at E.N. White School.

This is not the union president's first non-renewal from the district. Last June, he received one just before the completion of his third year teaching at Maurice A. Donahue School, weeks after he was named president of the teacher's union.

When he received his first non-renewal, Morales said it was in retaliation for criticizing educational reform -- including testing, data walls and administrative changes -- in Holyoke Public Schools.

He filed a complaint last summer with the Massachusetts Department of Labor Relations who found probable cause to his allegations against the district. In November, he was rehired by Holyoke Public Schools and dropped the complaint.

"I guess they want round two," Morales said in an interview this week. "The district has decided in all its infinite wisdom that it's better to fight me than to work with me."

As he did last year, Morales will remain president of the teachers union though he has been let go by the district. He said if he resigned, it would allow school administrators to control the union. "If you subscribe to the ideology that the district can determine union leadership, that would be bad for business."

These are the only cuts to teacher employment expected this year. Commissioner of Elementary and Secondary Education Mitchell D. Chester, who is serving as the Holyoke receiver until early July, has repeatedly said this week that there will be no "mass firings."

Reis said this week teachers will not be asked to reapply for their jobs, either at a district-level or on a school-by-school basis during the upcoming school year.