By corresponding reporter Jennifer Bonniwell
METCO students who are bused from Boston to Wellesley Public Schools are now being centralized in two elementary schools—rather than spread across all elementary schools—a substantial change to the voluntary school integration program that Wellesley joined more than 50 years ago.
New METCO students now start only at Hunnewell and Hardy elementary schools. METCO students currently attending other elementary schools will remain in those schools; but no new METCO students will join the other elementary schools unless they have a sibling already attending that school.
The new policy was announced in April 2024 and took effect in September. Because this was a policy change, the School Committee was told that it did not require committee approval.
The change in how students are placed in Wellesley schools is intended to group more METCO students in each classroom and each grade level. About 155 Boston residents attend Wellesley Public Schools through the METCO program each year. But until last year, the average elementary school had just one or two METCO students per grade. In 2023-24, Hunnewell had just three METCO students in the whole school; Sprague had the most with 15.
“A classroom with three or four METCO students is more ideal than one to two students, as it creates more opportunity for community and is less isolating,” WPS Director of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Jorge Allen told the School Committee at its April 23, 2024 meeting (see Wellesley Media video starting at 25:25).
Shorter Bus Rides, Better Support
Grouping METCO students at two elementary schools will reduce bus travel times from Boston, said K-12 METCO Director Stephanie Holland. Some elementary students begin their day as early as 6:30 a.m. and don’t get home until 4:30 p.m. Once all elementary students are at two
schools, the 90-minute bus trip could be 30 minutes shorter, she said.
Another key factor is that the district can better focus resources on supporting METCO students, Holland said. Moreover, recent MCAS results show wide disparity between student groups by race/ethnicity. The percentage of Black and Hispanic students meeting or exceeding
expectations was lower than the Wellesley average in every test for grades 3 to 8, and almost every test for 10th graders.
“At the core of this change is to increase the opportunity. We want all of our students to thrive, and not all of our students are thriving now,” Holland said.
Other similarly sized school districts including Lexington, Concord, Belmont and Natick already group METCO students into just a few schools, the district told the School Committee.
Lexington also made the change this school year, though it opted to move all of its students—even those currently attending other elementary schools.
Notably, in Concord-Carlisle School District, a METCO parent support group shut down in protest in fall 2024 due to frustration over the achievement gap between white students and METCO’s Black and brown students. In a letter to school officials, the parents group cited MCAS data showing only around 33 percent to 48 percent of METCO students in Concord- Carlisle are meeting standards in math and ELA.
Segregation by Desegregation?
School Committee member Christina Horner, who is Black and was a METCO student in Weston, raised multiple concerns, including whether grouping METCO students at just two schools was just another way to segregate these students within a predominantly white community.
In response, Superintendent David Lussier reiterated that grouping elementary students in fewer schools will be better for the students.
“For years, I attended end-of-year meetings with our graduating seniors who often recounted in painful terms how socially isolating their elementary experience in Wellesley was and not feeling a sense of affinity until coming together in middle school. And that was something we heard consistently year in and year out,” Lussier said. “With more students in fewer schools, we think we have a far greater chance of creating that sense of affinity and meaningful connections at each grade level.”
During the April School Committee meeting, Horner also read a comment from a resident: “I’m going to read this so I get it right: ‘Are we committed to METCO? If so, we should have students in every school so they can make friends across the town. This decision would mean that only certain families can even host students. The two schools is a negative for black residents who live in town.’ ”
In an interview in December, Lussier responded that Wellesley is fully committed to METCO and its contributions to the community.
“METCO is meant to be disruptive. It is meant to break through some of the isolation when students only attend schools where kids only look like each other. We have leaned into that and also what it means for us our community,” Lussier said. “We have never been more committed to that work.”
But, they’ll be the ‘METCO Schools’
Another concern from Wellesley supporters of METCO is that four elementary schools will lose their connection to the program.
“By putting Boston kids at just two schools, those schools become METCO schools. It isolates the kids a bit more so when they come together at the middle school, they only know kids from two schools,” said Shana Hardgrave, a Wellesley resident and volunteer director of the METCO Family Friend program. “There has been a lot of value in having METCO at each of the elementary schools and having diversity at the elementary schools.”
Hardgrave said many of the Family Friends—Wellesley families who are paired with the family of a METCO student to help them settle in—are saddened by the change, which means no new Family Friends will be needed at four elementary schools.
In response, Holland said that larger district-wide community events will eventually be planned to offer an opportunity for the entire school community to support METCO students.
How we got here
Wellesley is one of the seven founding districts in the state-funded METCO (Metropolitan Council for Educational Opportunity). METCO is a voluntary racial integration program that started in 1966, nearly a decade before court-ordered busing began in Boston in 1974.
A recent Tufts University study found that Boston students who attended suburban school districts as part of METCO program from 1990 to 2020 outperformed their peers in nearly every measure: METCO students were more likely to attend college, graduate from four-year schools, and earn more after graduation than their peers in Boston Public Schools. The study also found stronger gains for boys in METCO than girls and for METCO students whose parents didn’t go to college than those whose parents have college degrees.
Wellesley had considered this change for several years but only took a serious look when the town decided to redistrict due to Upham School closing, Holland said.
Before this change was adopted, the school district held two listening sessions with current METCO families and Holland met with students in 6th and 9th grades. The loudest feedback was that current students didn’t want to switch schools, to which the district agreed.
“It was interesting to hear about their experiences as, sometimes, the only BIPOC student in a class,” Holland said. “We also heard a lot about the ride. … Some of our students get on the bus at 6:30 a.m., and I think about that 5-year-old and about how that affects their day.”
By the numbers
For the 2024-25 school year, 157 METCO students attend Wellesley schools, including 57 at all six Wellesley elementary schools. Since current METCO students can stay in their elementary schools, the consolidation of students at Hardy and Hunnewell won’t be completed for four to six years, or more.
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I worked on the METCO board and headed the Family Friends program for 15 years.
All of our children deserve the privilege of getting to know the students from Boston. This should also be a priority. This is not Diversity, Equity and Inclusion.