Newton Public Schools announced last week that Blayne Lopes will serve as the interim director of the district’s Metropolitan Council for Educational Opportunity (METCO) program for the 2026-2027 school year.  

The METCO program is a state-funded educational program designed to reduce racial inequities by busing children from Boston and Springfield to public systems in nearby suburban metropolitan communities. Newton’s program is the largest, with more than 431 students or 3.1% of the student population enrolled across all 22 schools. 

In his current role as Newton North High School’s METCO Counselor, Lopes provides academic, social-emotional, and college and career support to more than 70 METCO students. He has worked to identify barriers to student success and has facilitated family engagement programs to strengthen relationships between Boston and Newton families. 

The METCO program was previously led by Lisa Gilbert-Smith, who was named the interim principal at Newton North High School last month, following the departure of Henry Turner.

Blayne Lopes, interim METCO director for the 2026-2027 school year. (Courtesy of Newton Public Schools)

Lopes is currently part of the Perrone-Sizer Institute for Creative Leadership (PSi), where he led a capstone project on strategies to recruit, retain and develop educators of color at NPS. The district’s annual report for the 2025-2026 academic year, released in April, showed that 85% of staff at NPS identify as White. The percentage of staff who identify as Black and Latino increased from 4% to 6% and from 3% to 4%, respectively, between 2021 and 2025. 

Lopes is a licensed social worker and holds a Master of Social Work with a specialization in urban leadership from Simmons College, as well as a Bachelor of Arts from Stonehill College, with double majors in sociology and psychology and a minor in youth and family services.