By Dakota Antelman — Dakota@concordbridge.org
The Concord-Carlisle METCO Parent Teacher Group is shutting down, with its leaders saying their frustration with school administrators about communication and student achievement reached the breaking point.
The METCO program, which has brought students from Boston into Concord schools since 1967 to build educational opportunity and diversity, will continue.
But in a letter obtained Wednesday by The Concord Bridge, the PTG said it was disbanding because leaders’ “pressing concerns as parents are not being prioritized.”
Four PTG leaders wrote that they have faced “significant challenges in fostering a collaborative relationship” with superintendent Laurie Hunter and director of diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging Andrew Nyamekye.
They said their decision to shut down came “despite our repeated attempts to engage and build a partnership.”
The Bridge reached out to Nyamekye for comment on Wednesday, but did not immediately receive responses.
Hunter said she was “not able to respond more tonight” when asked Wednesday afternoon about the PTG’s letter and whether two non-voting METCO representatives would continue to serve on the School Committee, but said, “There are no changes to the structure.”
In a joint statement Wednesday evening in response to a Bridge inquiry, Julie Viola and Carrie Rankin, the chairs of Concord’s public and regional School Committees, said “our commitment to METCO students and their families is unwavering, and our work is never complete, as we are always striving to improve.”
They continued, “We will continue to create a supportive, inclusive environment where all families feel heard, valued, and empowered to succeed.”
Viola and Rankin said a recent survey of METCO families showed 78 percent are satisfied or very satisfied with their experience in the Concord Public Schools and at CCHS.
“This feedback helps guide ongoing improvements while showing that the concerns raised by the four METCO PTG members do not reflect the full picture,” the chairs said.
‘More on the families’
Domingos DaRosa, who co-chaired the now-defunct METCO PTG, said he plans to resign his School Committee post, but had yet to formally do so as of Wednesday afternoon.
While he backs the PTG dissolution, he said it means parents will have less support in advocating for their METCO students. “It’s going to be more on the families now,” he said. “Families are not going to have that network.”
School Committee METCO representative Ayesha Lawton, who was not part of the PTG, said she has not had issues with the administration and has no plans to resign.
Lawton, a former METCO student and 10-year METCO parent, said she was disappointed by the PTG’s decision.
“I wish they could have stayed together and made it work,” she said. “The METCO kids need a voice.”
‘With great regret’
The METCO PTG’s leaders detailed the decision in a letter dated November 18. The group sent Hunter the letter Wednesday morning, according to a forwarded email from PTG chair Akia Obas, who was not immediately available for further comment.
Obas, DaRosa, PTG secretary Tyisha Edwards, and treasurer Tanika Williams wrote that they decided to disband “after considerable deliberation and with great regret.” Their decision was effective immediately and “has not been made lightly,” the group said.
Among other issues, the PTG said Hunter and Nyamekye have been unwilling “to align with us on actionable steps to address the specific needs of METCO students and families.”
DaRosa said some concerns manifest in disproportionately low rates of participation among Boston students in Concord’s AP courses, while the PTG highlighted MCAS data for METCO students. The group’s letter said that “despite mounting data that reflects declining outcomes for our children, there appears to be no clear path forward to reverse this downward trajectory.”
“Our children are failing and many have not been performing at a satisfactory level at every grade level,” parents said.
The PTG also said administrators lack a “cohesive strategy or a genuine commitment” to address disparities. As a result, parents said they are left “with little hope that our involvement will bring about any meaningful change.”
Shutting down the PTG “ultimately leaves our children without a safety net and further perpetuates the narrative that we are secondary,” parents said.
The PTG said it hopes district leaders will now “reflect on the importance of engaging with all parent groups” and “future efforts will be made to ensure that the voices of underrepresented families are included in the decisions that directly affect their children’s education.”
Lawton said she hasn’t experienced the kind of issues with district administrators that the PTG described. “I’ve had discrimination from other parents and teachers at the school, but not from the administration,” she said.
As The Bridge reported in June, Lawton was at a School Committee discussion of the naming of what is now the Ellen Garrison Building at Concord Middle School this spring when she said, per a police report, that an audience member targeted her with a racial slur.
DaRosa, for his part, said he’s “not usually a guy to walk away from a fight.”
But he said he’d “rather concentrate on my own city than worry about a town that doesn’t want to accept the fact that to be progressive, it takes more than just having Black Lives Matter signs. You have to take the conversation seriously.”
This breaking story will be updated.
