Name: Aaron Polansky
Role: Superintendent, Old Colony Regional Vocational Technical High School
Age: 41
How he came to Tri-Town: He lives in Raynham and grew up in Natick, but he spends his days (and many nights) in Rochester.
Favorite Tri-Town spot: “It’s in the neighborhood next door (to Old Colony), the lake. In the summer, because I don’t have to wear a suit to work, I bring a kayak and a book. I’ll row out, drop my oars and read in the middle of Snipatuit. It’s beautiful.”
Ever seen a celebrity locally? “We had (author) Temple Grandin here to speak last year. I went and drove to Burlington where she was speaking to pick her up and talk to us. She was very down to earth and good with the kids. I’d love to get James Spader to come here and talk with the kids.”
Aaron Polansky: A Passionate Voice for Old Colony
By Jonathan Comey
After the 13th straight loss to begin his high school wrestling career as a Natick High freshman, Aaron Polansky was ready to give it up.
“They needed a varsity wrestler, one hundred and three pounds, and I heard the word ‘varsity,’ not necessarily ‘wrestling,’ and said, ‘I’ll give it a shot,’” Polansky recalled, sitting in his office as Superintendent of Old Colony Regional Voc-Tech in Rochester.
He didn’t know it at the time, but 30 years later he would see it as a turning point in his life. “I told my mother, ‘I don’t know if this is for me,’ and she told me no, I had to finish what I started.”
So he worked at it, and by the end of his sophomore season, he qualified for the state tournament. He’s been striving ever since, and followed an educator’s questioning path through life to a speedy rise to his role as the head of Old Colony.
He says he found an identity in wrestling that he was searching for, and he feels that his job (among others) is for his students to find their own special thing.
“I think there’s a lot that can be taught with any interaction,” he said. “Any extracurricular, someone who’s involved with wrestling or music or anything, it’s all about discipline and motivation and collaboration. Or through foreign language, or whatever their passion may be. That’s the beauty of education – finding someone’s passion and using it as a mechanism to better their life.”
Polansky’s tenacity and likeability have served him well – first as a teacher, then out of daily education working for a landscape design company while coaching wrestling at Hudson High and acting as the state head of USA wrestling.
After five years out, he came back to education full time in 2008 as assistant principal and then principal at Bristol Aggie. The father of six had been mulling over a move to superintendent jobs, and decided to apply and interview at Old Colony without thinking he’d be a leading candidate, but wanting to see how the process went.
“And here we are,” he says with a smile, gesturing to his office as he finished a tastefully prepared school lunch of chili with a grilled cheese sandwich.
He feels like he’s a good combination for the small school with a hard-working base.
“I think it was a really good fit,” he says. “This is a really warm community, and my philosophy is people first. I really think the school committee and the people involved came off as warm. Felt like a really great opportunity.”
As he nears his first anniversary at Old Colony, he says he’s learning how to adjust to his new role while harnessing his own desire to lead.
During a tour of the school, Polansky makes several stops – a history lesson, a learning group led by a student, welding and woodcutting, cosmetology, and math. He stops to take a picture for social media, poses for a group pic with some kids in the gym, makes jokes, and tries not to disrupt. Although Polansky is the boss of all of it, he looks like he’d be happy to rip off his administrator’s suit and be coach, teacher, buddy.
Polansky says his goals for Old Colony are modest: more advanced academic classes, an expanded homecoming weekend, new programs, more involvement in the community. Mostly, he wants to be, in his words, a “servant/leader.”
“It’s hard really, because I have to be respectful of what others want to do. I spent most of my first year getting to know people, and I wanted to be careful of not taking on too much. I want it to be a collaborative team where everyone complements each other well. I think we’re very high functioning as a team. The teachers we have, the student body we have – it’s a team effort, it’s gone incredibly well. Being in this setting makes me feel connected to the kids, and that I can build a community around what we are.”
Polansky continued, “I’m being very authentic when I say it’s a great place to be. We can really make a difference in the lives of kids. They’re not a number in our hallway, they’re a name. I feel lucky to wake up every day and impact the lives of students.”