MA Worker Shortage May Be Easing: Report | Patch PM

MASSACHUSETTS — It's Friday, Oct. 22. Here's what you should know this afternoon:

• Hopkinton High School has become the first school in the state to drop the COVID-19 mask mandate.
• A student from Brockton High School will face charges after a video surfaced on social media sparking a stay in place order.
• Famed Cambridge restaurant Craigie on Main, which has been temporarily closed since August, is up for sale.

Scroll down for more on those and other stories Patch has been covering in Massachusetts today.

Today's Top Story

Massachusetts employers added 11,9000 jobs in September, up from 3,400 in August, according to a report released Friday. It was the largest number of people entering the workforce since December.

The state's unemployment rate was 5.2 percent in September, up slightly from 5 percent in August. Massachusetts employers have struggled to find workers for open positions, even as federal pandemic subsidies for state unemployment payments expired.

That has forced businesses to cut hours or offer new hires bonuses and higher wages. In Marblehead, for example, the school committee voted this week to raise the day rate for substitute teachers to $110 from $80.

"We can't get day subs," Superintendent John Buckey said before the committee's 5-0 vote. "I'm thinking at $110, if you have the option of going next door to Swampscott that's $100, or to another neighboring district that might be $80 or $95, it might make us more attractive."

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Friday's Other Top Stories

Hopkinton High is first school to go masks optional: Hopkinton High School has become the first school in the state to drop the COVID-19 mask mandate. 98% of the school is vaccinated, which is far higher than the 80% needed to be able to suggest removing the mask mandate. Individual middle and high schools in Massachusetts are allowed to lift the indoor mask requirement if they can prove at least 80% of students and staff have been vaccinated against COVID-19.

Student facing charges after Brockton High lockdown: A student from Brockton High School will face charges after a video surfaced on social media sparking a stay in place order. Administrators say a Snapchat post was brought to their attention showing a magazine clip attached to a student's pants. Brockton Public Schools say the student was pulled from class and admitted to taking the video last month and posting it Friday.

Another Green Line extension delay: The smaller of the two branches, which adds a single stop to Union Square, is now expected to open in March, MBTA General Manager Steve Poftak said Thursday. It is the second time the branch's opening has been delayed – it was originally slated to open this month before being pushed to December amid supply chain issues over the summer.

Family honors slain mother: Just a week before Christmas 2018 and four days after her 50th birthday, Ersilia Cataldo Matarazzo's life was taken as she sat in her car. Her estranged husband shot her multiple times in the driveway of her parents' Everett home. Now Amata Matarazzo works with other members of her family to make sure other women have resources hers didn't.

Heading to Salem to celebrate Halloween this month? Read Patch's visitors guide.

Picture This

Famed Cambridge restaurant Craigie on Main, which has been temporarily closed since August, is up for sale. Owner Tony Maws listed the business for $500,000, telling the Boston Globe he "put it on the market to see what the value is and if there's an option that involves selling," and noted how he was enjoying spending more time with family.

Election 2021 Notebook

Worcester mayor on running for a sixth term: After 24 years as an At-Large City Councilor — 10 of those years as mayor — what's left to do for Joseph Petty? Plenty, he says. Petty, 61, is running for his sixth term in 2021 as mayor, and he's looking forward to a new term to tackle capital projects at schools and continue the recent spree of economic development in Worcester, largely centered around Polar Park.

Medford mayoral candidates debate: Medford's mayoral debate turned contentious at times, as candidates fielded attacks from each other and jeers from the crowd at the Chevalier Theatre. Mayor Breanna Lungo-Koehn and her challenger, City Councilor John Falco, tackled issues ranging from climate change and diversity, to schools and infrastructure, at the Oct. 13 debate. Where they were able to find common ground – both supported revitalizing Medford Square, for example – the candidates hit each other over their voting records and past comments that ran incongruent to their current positions.

In Case You Missed It

Massachusetts COVID metrics resume decline: The coronavirus positive test rate fell back below 2 percent and other metrics continued to decline, according to the latest data released Thursday by the Department of Public Health. At the town level, roughly 37 percent of communities reported falling positive test rates, while 45 percent reported rising rates, according to town-by-town data released Thursday.

Also on Patch: Kids' COVID Shots Expected To Arrive In MA By Nov. 5

By The Numbers

$20,000: The reward the FBI is offering for information in a 40-year-old, unsolved murder in Norton. Peter Dabbs shot Robin Shea in the chest on Oct. 10, 1981 and pushed her body out onto the street. Dabbs was later indicted for her murder and a state warrant was issued for his arrest on Nov. 3, 1981, but police say Dabbs was never found.