Is this a wrong sentence?

"Of the 100 students enrolled in New Haven, about 30% of the parents attend special meetings. The low attendance is in spite of commitments they made at the outset of the program when Hyde officials interviewed 300 families." These are the two sentences of an article I read days ago. I can't understand the underlined part. Is it ungrammatical? Should it be "the attendance is really low in spite of..."? If not what does the writer want to say? Many thanks for your help.