ROCHESTER — Old Colony Regional Vocational Technical High School stayed busy during the summer.

The school held the seventh annual “Summer Discovery Experience” program for fifth through eighth graders, according to Superintendent-Director Aaron Polansky. 

“A lot of our current students came back to help out with that, which was really, really fantastic,” Polansky said.

There was also a reading program, according to Polansky.

And an Old Colony alum, Keith Jodoin, ran a weeklong film academy. An Old Colony wall of achievement inductee, Jodoin has worked with Discovery Channel, National Geographic and Animal Planet, among other productions. He asked to come back to run a film academy and “did a beautiful job,” according to Polansky.

“We were buzzing here for sure,” Polansky said.

The new school year at Old Colony began Wednesday, Aug. 28, as students returned and brought “life to the building,” according to Polansky.

“When the staff and the students come back, the heartbeats and minds help us to come alive, and that's what we live for,” he said.

With the new year comes a few new administrators for Old Colony. Formerly Old Colony’s assistant principal, Gary Linehan was named principal earlier this summer. 

He took over the role from J. Michael Parker, who in turn became interim assistant principal. Parker will serve in that position until his retirement in October. Then, Jen Govoni will become assistant principal.

Also joining the Old Colony administration are Cheryl Hebert as academic coordinator and Kelly Taveira as special services director.

“I think we have a really wonderful team of people who will work to support our staff and students,” Polansky said.

On Monday, Aug. 26, Erin Gruwell — a teacher who began the “Freedom Writers” education method in which students share their own stories through journaling — spoke to Old Colony faculty, according to Polansky.

Gruwell told stories about some of the students she had worked with and the successes they were seeing to this day and “did a beautiful job of kicking off our school year for us,” Polansky said.

“We were blessed to have her with us,” he said.