The Swampscott Metropolitan Council for Education Opportunity (METCO) program will be graduating its largest class to date on Friday, according to Co-directors Temi Bailey and Krista Lynch.
“They’re just an amazing group of kids,” Lynch said.
Ten METCO students will graduate on Friday, May 30 at 6 p.m. The ceremony will take place at Blocksidge Field, at 585 Humphrey St. All of the METCO students have post-high school plans as well, with nine going to a school and one joining the Navy.
METCO is primarily run out of Boston, enrolling resident students in suburban public schools from kindergarten through 12th grade. METCO is the largest continuously running voluntary school desegregation program in the country, as two students who will be joining Swampscott in the 2025-26 school year will be third generation METCO students. The program provides Boston students with access to stronger educational opportunities while also promoting diversity and reducing racial isolation in the participating suburban schools.
Even still, Swampscott’s school district is less diverse than the racial breakdowns in the overall state, according to enrollment data for 2024-25 from the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education.
| Race | Percent of District | Percent of State |
| American Indian or Alaska Native | 0.3 | 0.2 |
| Asian | 2.9 | 7.5 |
| Black or African American | 3.9 | 10.2 |
| Hispanic or Latino | 14.6 | 25.9 |
| Multi-Race, Not Hispanic or Latino | 3.4 | 4.6 |
| Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander | 0.1 | 0.1 |
| White | 74.8 | 51.5 |
This is why Bailey calls METCO a “great opportunity for both sides.”
“The Boston kids coming out here are being exposed to a different area, being exposed to a different scenery and being forced to have to acknowledge different viewpoints that they probably would not have to deal with or grow up with in Boston,” Bailey said. “It’ll also put them in a state of mind where they’ll be able to navigate the real world a lot better…They’ll be able to articulate themselves in the environment and be able to confidently move.”
For Swampscott, Bailey said the students that reside locally “get to be more understanding of the unfortunate side of life that their minority counterparts have to deal with.” The friends and family program also allows people in Swampscott to open their homes to a METCO student.
Some METCO students have over an hour and a half commute one way, according to Lynch. Students involved in extracurriculars spend long days in Swampscott, from about 7:45 a.m. to 8 p.m., often “getting home around 10 p.m., getting to bed by 12 o’clock, getting up and doing the same thing again,” Bailey said.
“It’s dedication from parents and students,” Lynch said.
Of the ten graduating this year, the majority started attending Swampscott schools in high school. Others joined the METCO program in elementary and middle schools. Bailey said he’s seen students make their own families in Swampscott, even if they’ve only been in the district for a few years.
“They took it on. That’s something great to see,” Bailey said. “They don’t feel like they have to conform to a certain ideology or be a certain way because they’re from Boston.”
Looking to the future for the ten graduating students, Bailey and Lynch see the METCO program bolstering them.
“I was just having this conversation with a student too. She was more bent on going to a more diverse school. I told her at the end of the day, you’re going to be fine. You’re going to have fun wherever you go,” Bailey said. “Look at where you are right now. You survived here. You were able to make your friends. You’ll be able to survive there too.”
Naina Alves Varela, who will be heading to UMass Dartmouth in the fall, said programs through METCO, like the Heritage Festival, reminds her that “I’m not alone.” She said the program has allowed her to gain skills her peers in Dorchester might not have been able to learn firsthand.
“I’ve learned to be able to manage my time,” Alves Varela said. “In general, being here, I’ve learned to be more professional and how to be myself in a more professional setting.”
With the small class sizes, Lynch also added the students learned more within the Swampscott district. In recent years, METCO students have been accepted into schools like Curry College, UMass Boston, University of Arizona, Clark University, Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences, University of New Hampshire, Franklin Pierce College, Norfolk State University and Syracuse University.
Bailey added that if some of the METCO students “grew up in Boston and were in that environment, they would not have ended up” at the colleges they will attend in the fall.
