Pedestrian struck, killed crossing road

The first teachers union contract with a Massachusetts charter public school has been reached, the Massachusetts Charter Public School Association announced yesterday. The three-year contract for teachers at the Conservatory Lab in Brighton, a K-5 school that uses a music curriculum, will include merit pay for teachers and a longer school day, according to the association. The agreement was reached with the American Federation of Teachers Massachusetts.

Elevated levels of carbon monoxide forced the evacuation yesterday of The Liberty Hotel, sending hundreds of workers, guests, two monkeys, and a pet crow onto Charles Street. No injuries to man or beast were reported. The animals are staying at the hotel during the filming of “The Zookeeper,’’ a movie being shot at the Franklin Park Zoo. Investigators tracked the problem to a boiler that had a small hole. By midafternoon, guests were allowed to return to the hotel.

Colonel Mark Delaney, head of the State Police, announced yesterday that he is retiring after a little more than three years at the helm of the agency. “I have decided it is time for me to move on to the next chapter of my life,’’ said Delaney, 56, who has been on the force for more than 35 years and has been colonel since June 2006. Delaney said he was “confident in the knowledge that the men and women I am leaving behind are carrying on the proud legacy of the Massachusetts State Police.’’ He was a major who had overseen a badly needed upgrade of the department’s crime lab when he was appointed colonel.

John E. Bassett, Clark University president, plans to step down from his post in July after a decade on the job. “Ten years seems about the right time for a university president, at least for me,’’ he said in a statement yesterday. Bassett, 67, has overseen a trend of more selective enrollment at the Worcester university. Clark accepts about 12 percent less of its total applicants than it did in 2001, his first full year on the job. But because of an increase in applications, the 2008 incoming class was 500 students larger than in 2001.

Retired boxer Micky Ward has been acquitted of a charge of assaulting his wife’s stepfather by punching him in the face. A judge cleared the former junior welterweight fighter Tuesday of an assault and battery charge in connection with the confrontation with Kevin Nolette, 53, in May 2008. Ward’s defense attorney contended his client acted in self-defense. Ward, 43, had no comment, but his lawyer told The Sun of Lowell that the incident was “an unfortunate family situation.’’ (AP)

A 6-year-old boy slipped out of kindergarten class in Somerville earlier this week and walked home alone, a school official said. “His mother dropped him off in the cafeteria . . . and then the student wandered out and followed her home,’’ said Superintendent Tony Pierantozzi. The boy walked alone for 20 minutes from the Michael E. Capuano Early Childhood Center. He surprised his mother at home before she left for work, according to a story posted on the website of WCVB-TV, Channel 5. “We take full responsibility,’’ Pierantozzi said. “Typically parents inform staff members when they drop off children. She did not do that.’’ Pupils are supervised at all times, he said.