Wayland School Committee confronts racist graffiti targeting superintendent

WAYLAND -- January 4, 2023, Wayland School Committee confronts racist graffiti targeting its first Black superintendent. More than an hour of public comment at the Jan. 4 meeting linked the Dec. 21 graffiti at the Wayland Community Pool to the committee's ongoing outside investigation of Superintendent Omar Easy, with METCO Director LaToya Rivers telling members families saw "a direct correlation" between the two. Former METCO director Mabel Reid-Wallace told the board, "Look at what you did that precipitated those two words." The Boston Parent Council, Chanel Daly, Susan Young and Taisha Stevens, announced a Jan. 17 "day of impact" keeping METCO students home from school. Easy said he was "not wavering" from holding staff accountable. The committee separately voted to seek roughly $460,000 in town ARPA funds to launch tuition-free full-day kindergarten, against a $731,000 cut the town has requested from the school budget.