Community Corner

Letter: METCO Program Helps Bridge the Education Gap

The following is a letter to the editor from Marie Kelfer, who has been charged by D-S Public Schools Superintendent Valerie Spriggs to develop stories that focus on the positive aspects of the school system.

We are lucky to live in these beautiful towns of Dover and Sherborn, surrounded by woods and trails, safe places to work and play and the benefit of excellent public schools.

Bridging the gap in distance and opportunity between our communities and Boston is the goal of the METCO program.

Claire Toohey used to work for the Boston Public Schools and when she recently relocated to Metrowest, she wanted to keep that connection.

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Now, as METCO director at the Dover-Sherborn (D-S) public schools, she supports Boston-based students across all four schools and each year sees at least two go on to college; a 100% success rate that has lasted for the past 40 years.

Diversity in classrooms helps both staff and students examine their feelings about race and social class. Early in their education, students have teachers who talk about skin color and help children understand social differences. More than one teacher has used two eggs, one brown and one white, to show that the inside yolk and albumen are exactly the same.

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Toohey’s goal is to continue to strengthen community connections between Boston and Dover-Sherborn. Local host families allow Boston kids the opportunity to spend non-school time on early release Wednesdays and other school holidays in either town. Likewise host families in Boston hold sleepovers in their homes for D-S kids.

Success is achieved when D-S students, parents, guardians and teachers share, interact and learn from each other. When this happens, the schools and communities benefit.

Parent Kristina Gallant’s family has hosted two brothers for the past 10 years, and is happy to report that their relationship is close with both boys and their family, partly due to weekly sleepovers.

As the METCO host family coordinator at Pine Hill School, she is responsible for organizing a host family for each child so he/she can participate in out of school activities like playdates or town sports.

“What’s key is finding a Sherborn family that the METCO family gets to know and feels comfortable with.” Gallant said.

Another key is the Mentor Program created by Dr. Maury Frieman, school counselor at Pine Hill School.

This effort joins one teacher with a Boston student during the student’s elementary years at Pine Hill or Chickering schools follows the student until he/she transitions to the middle school.

Dr. Frieman said, “The teacher/mentor serves as an advocate for the elementary school aged child who spends long hours away from his/her home and neighborhood. The mentor helps the child become a vibrant part of the Pine Hill/ Sherborn community.”

The program will be implemented at the regional schools this fall.

METCO has evolved as a program since its inception in Dover in 1968, but its most important goal is still to provide opportunities for children.

One of those first METCO students is now famed drummer Leon Mobley, .

Thanks to the METCO program, a D-S education opens doors for even more people and all students learn considerably more about the world in which they live.


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