King's words still inspire action
Group raises funds to get Metco students home safely
BELMONT - Anthony Chinn has to wake up each school day at 4:30 a.m. so he can take an MBTA bus from his home in Roslindale to the T's Orange Line, where he catches the train to the Red Line and then picks up another bus to get to school in Belmont.
After basketball practice, the 17-year-old has to take the same long route back each evening, getting home as late as 10 p.m. during the winter months.
"Coming home on the train is kind of dangerous at that time of night," the Belmont High senior said. "You've seen the news - someone shot in a train station. . . . At any point in time, anything can happen."
But through a private Belmont fund-raising effort, Metco students such as Chinn, who live in Boston but attend Belmont High School, can take a cab service home during the dark hours of the winter months. It's fast, it's safe, and it helps the mostly minority students of the Metco program participate in student life in the 91 percent white community.
The program is an effort of Belmont Against Racism, which raises money for the nearly $20,000 program primarily through Monday's annual breakfast commemorating the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.
As in many communities, Belmont residents gather every year on the holiday to share music, dance, food, and discussion about the slain civil rights leader's dream. But each year organizers here make the annual breakfast do more than just inspire. The $5 admission literally supports the community's diversity by keeping the after-school transportation program going.
"We find that this is Belmont at its best," said Kathryn Bonfiglio, a Belmont Against Racism board member.
The Metropolitan Council for Educational Opportunity program, started in 1966, enables some 3,300 students to attend 33 school districts in metropolitan Boston and at four school districts outside Springfield. It is intended to promote diversity within primarily white, affluent communities and provide educational opportunities to typically minority students.
Contracted buses shuttle younger Metco students to and from school. And in communities far from public transportation, all Metco students take special buses. But such transportation costs eat into the Metco budgets, so high school students in school districts closer to Boston, such as Belmont, are given MBTA passes.
For Belmont High's 36 Metco students, that translates into at least an hour commute each way, often with several transfers, said Belmont's Metco director, Diane Wiltshire.
But long commutes are part of the cost of getting what some consider a better education. "With the Belmont system, it's going to really help me when I get older," said Chinn, who wants to attend Springfield College next year and study computers. "I see schools in Boston, and they're not as serious."
Still, the long public transportation commutes can discourage students from participating in extracurricular activities. Administrators have found students saying they need to get home before dark in winter months, concerned about the danger of walking home from bus stops and T stations after dark.
But Belmont Against Racism's transportation program provides a way they can stay after school for the plays, athletics, orchestra practice, extra tutoring, and classroom projects that Belmont students take advantage of so easily.
"It really allows them the opportunity to perform just like resident students, that they don't have to rush out to catch a particular bus," Wiltshire said. "They know they have some safe transportation to get home."
The program, which generally runs from November to April using a contract with a taxi service, is paid for entirely through Belmont Against Racism funding. Much of that money comes from the King breakfast.
Students must sign up each day that they want the ride, choosing one of two pickup times. The school then faxes the list with the students' destinations to the Arlex cab company.
Depending on how many students sign up, Arlex sends over either a cab or a van, then drives each student home.
"It's door-to-door service, not dropping off at Dudley Square," said assistant principal Dan Richards, who runs the program. "We get them home safely so they're kind of enticed to stay after school."
For Andrell Jones, 16, the shuttle home means he can work with teachers after class on social studies and science several days a week. The program keeps him focused on his schoolwork and cuts in half his after-school commuting time to Hyde Park.
"It helps a lot," the sophomore said, "because it saves a lot of time taking the train."
And, he acknowledged, it keeps his parents - both Boston police officers - from worrying about him walking home alone through dark streets.
Kytja Weir can be reached at kytja.weir@gmail.com. 