MA's Math Problem For Bringing Students, Teachers Back: Patch PM

MASSACHUSETTS — It's Monday, March 15. Here's what you should know this afternoon:

• Few teachers will be fully vaccinated by the time the education commissioner expects students back in class five days a week — and the state appears to be fine with that, even if educators aren't.
• You know this won't be just another race: The first running of the Boston Marathon in 30 months will have 20,000 participants.
• One North Shore community had figured out it's going to remember such an impactful, complicated year.

Monday's Top Story

State officials have adopted the full-steam-ahead approach to getting students back in class, plowing through teachers' objections and shrugging at a vaccination timeline that doesn't quite add up.

The back-and-forth with educators hasn't been a subtle one: Teachers' unions say they want to be back with their students in school — but only when it's safe. The state says that time is near.
State Education Commissioner Jeff Riley ordered elementary school students back in class five days a week starting April 5. Middle school students have to be back by April 28.

The problem is vaccinations. Teachers in the state only became eligible to book vaccinations Thursday, and since most inoculations require two shots weeks apart, many will not be fully vaccinated by early April. Gov. Charlie Baker fast-tracked the vaccine process for teachers after pressure from the White House and here at home.

"It was pretty clear to everyone in the field that that was being done because his hand had been forced," Worcester School Committee member Tracy O'Connell Novack told Patch last week, hours before the state announced it set aside four days for teachers-only vaccinations at mass vaccination sites.

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Today's Other Top Stories

And, they're off! — Twenty-thousand runners will take part in the first Boston Marathon in nearly 30 months this fall, race organizers announced Monday. The 125th running of the marathon is scheduled for Oct. 11. It was canceled last year and postponed this year due to the coronavirus pandemic. The Boston Athletic Association and city and state officials believe October will be safe enough to have 20,000 people take the hallowed journey from Hopkinton to Boylston Street.

How to measure a year — Danvers thought it was right to recognize what everyone has gone through in the past year. The question was how to do that. Calling it an anniversary didn't seem right. It certainly wasn't a celebration. Dwelling on only the negative felt like the wrong tone as well given the recent promise of lower coronavirus numbers and increasing vaccinations. So, Danvers came up with the concept of a weeklong "Community Illumination" project designed to remember those lost during the pandemic, honor local "superheroes" who rose up amid the darkest days of the crisis and look forward to a brighter future.

Victim's family pushes for crisis training — The family of Michael Conlon, who was fatally shot last month by police during a mental health crisis, is calling for more police training. If the efforts that Newton is now working on had been in effect last month, the 28-year-old might still be alive, his family said.

'Just isn't worth it' — Boston residents and restaurant owners largely followed state guidelines and stayed safe the weekend before St. Patrick's Day, Mayor Marty Walsh said Monday at a news conference. "For the most part, everyone was in compliance," he said. Now he's asking for another week — despite the holiday.

They Said It

"If they cut my bald head open, they will find one big boxing glove. That's all I am. I live it."

— "Marvelous" Marvin Hagler, the longtime middleweight champion adopted by New Englanders as their boxing icon, who died Saturday in his New Hampshire home.

By The Numbers

$2,000 — That's how much state Rep. Dave Robertson was fined over missing campaign finance filings in the 2020 election campaign. The Democrat failed to report over $15,000 in out-of-pocket expenditures in Aug. through Oct. 2020.