This week, the Telegram & Gazette looks back at some of the top Central Mass. newsmakers of 2020 in sports, education, entertainment, politics, business, health care, social justice and religion.
While plenty of sectors and industries were upended by the pandemic, there was nothing quite like the chaotic year the education world endured in 2020.
Since February, when several local colleges began hurriedly bringing study abroad students back from coronavirus-hit regions, COVID-19 has dominated the school news landscape.
Schools and colleges alike were faced with a seemingly no-win choice between risking the pandemic and having students come back to in-person classes, or making everyone stay home. No matter the decision, there was lots to pick apart: how schools could transition, almost overnight, to a virtual delivery format; whether students could learn at home, sitting in front of a computer; and if school buildings and campuses could adapt to the new normal of strict social dista