About the METCO Program
The Metco Program is a grant program in part funded by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. It is a voluntary program intended to expand educational opportunities, increase diversity, and reduce racial isolation, by permitting students in certain cities to attend public schools in other communities that have agreed to participate.The Program has been in existence since 1966 and was originally funded through a grant by the Carnegie Foundation and United States Office of Education. In that year the first Metco legislation was filed, METCO Inc. was established, and seven school districts began accepting the first two hundred Metco students. Currently, there are about 3,300 students participating in 33 school districts in metropolitan Boston and at four school districts outside Springfield.
SPS Students from Boston participate in a wide variety of activities. Haynes students, for example, are involved in a staff mentoring program and attend system-wide Stay and Play dates across the school calendar. Middle school students take advantage of the after school program scheduled twice weekly at ECMS. Social activities, such as the annual Pot Luck Dinner and Frog Pond Skating Social foster a sense of greater community for both Boston and Sudbury families. All parents are invited to join the Steering Committee that initiates and oversees these experiences in conjunction with the Academic Advisors and Program Director.
HOP is the Haynes Organization of Parents: an organization of parents and guardians of children attending the Josiah Haynes School. We interact with teachers, professional and administrative staff of the school; we foster, enrich and otherwise support the educational programs and related activities conducted by the school; we present cultural and science programs and activities that aid and supplement the curriculum; and we raise money to fund professional development programs, technology purchases, classroom supplies, playground equipment and much, much more.