Old Colony Regional Vocational Technical High School has been awarded a $2 million grant from the Massachusetts Executive Office of Education to modernize its Machine and Tool Technology program, an investment that will enhance student learning while reducing costs for the district’s member towns.

            Old Colony was one of 30 schools statewide selected for funding through the competitive initiative, which supports career technical education programs aligned with workforce needs.

            The grant will fund the replacement of equipment that, in many cases, dates back to the school’s opening in 1975. The upgrades will bring the program in line with current industry standards and ensure students graduate with the skills and experience needed for careers in advanced manufacturing.

            Superintendent-Director Aaron Polansky praised the collaborative effort behind the successful application and highlighted the financial impact of the award.

            “The cost savings to our member towns will be significant. We are talking about hundreds of thousands of dollars saved for each of our five member communities,” Polansky said. “Just as important, these upgrades will bring our Machine and Tool Technology program into the present day and ensure students are learning on the same types of equipment used in industry.”

            Massachusetts Secretary of Education Stephen Zrike Jr. emphasized the broader value of expanding career technical opportunities for students.

            “This investment, I want to be clear, is about listening to our students and delivering what they’re asking for, what they’re telling us,” Zrike said. “They want the chance to explore their passions and discover their interests. They want to see the full range of opportunities in front of them, and they want to feel like learning is relevant.”

            Old Colony’s Machine and Tool Technology program prepares students for careers in advanced manufacturing, a sector that continues to grow across Massachusetts. With new equipment and updated technology, students will gain hands-on experience with modern tools and processes used throughout the industry.

            The grant supports Old Colony’s ongoing effort to provide high-quality career technical education while remaining mindful of the financial impact on its member communities.

            Since last fall, the Mattapoisett Museum, Old Rochester Regional High School, and Old Colony Regional Vocational-Technical High School have collaborated to create a coloring book titled: “Mattapoisett, Then and Now: A Coloring Book.” The final product will be unveiled at the museum on May 14.

            The creation of the coloring book was the culmination of the work of many. To start off, history students at ORRHS in Colin Everett’s tutelage researched 18 Mattapoisett landmarks. They then passed their findings along to art teacher Kate Butler’s students, who created pictures of said landmarks. Finally, it was all passed along to Marie Foscaldo’s students at Old Colony, where the cover was produced and the books themselves were printed.

            ORRHS Social Studies Teacher Colin Everett began with, “I would highlight that Ms. (Karen) Browning was the central figure in pulling in the disparate parties and focusing the project.” On his role as an educator, he said, “I teach the ’Local History’ history class, and the major challenge is that our sources are scattered through different archives, databases, and books. Finding reputable sources for all of the locations and then deciding what story to tell about a site was challenging for the students.” For highlights, he added, “The major highlight in Local History was defining the aspects of historical significance, such as profundity, importance, and relevance, and then exploring what sites in Mattapoisett met the standard as a ‘significant’ place.” Everett also emphasized the importance of students researching and writing on their own backyards.

            Browning, a Mathematics teacher at ORRHS, explained a few things on the challenges coming with the large-scale collaboration: “We were looking for a map online that we could include in the coloring book. Many maps had too much information or not enough, and I tried to use a google map screenshot and edit that, but it was getting difficult! I shared this challenge with Marie (Foscaldo), the teacher at Old Colony, and one of her students took it and ran with the task! He sketched a map on his own, using the classroom’s software. Then he made a ‘key’ with the symbols representing each landmark and placed them on the map. Then he shared it with us, and we readjusted some of the locations in comparison to others… so, this was truly a collaborative effort, and the final product was exciting to see. Now, we all have an appreciation for the details of map making, and we learned a lot through this collaboration.”

            Browning also spoke on her viewpoint and a mathematics background, saying, “As math teacher, I really enjoyed hearing how students completed their research for their historical summaries, for the coloring book images, and for the layout, printing and binding of the final product. Teachers put a lot of thought and time into preparing the lessons for students, as this had never been done before – choosing and providing the resources, asking open-ended as well as pointed questions, outlining a process where all students could be successful, and reviewing student work and giving feedback. This process had many more steps than people might realize; the final product is ‘better’ due to this collaboration.”

            She also said, “It was an honor to work with all parties involved – the Mattapoisett Museum, the three teachers from different fields, and to see the student work appear on our Google documents! It was a challenge for people in three different locations, all with different schedules, to meet. We valued this project and communicated well; we leave with an appreciation for the roles we all play in educating young people.” She added, “We looked at a coloring book from a museum in Connecticut, but we really had no idea what our final product would look like; it truly was a collaborative process with lots of changes along the way, to get to the finished product!”

            Kate Butler, Art teacher at ORRHS, said “It was a pleasure to be a part of this collaboration!” As one of two art teachers at ORR, she said students in her Visual Design class created the images in the coloring book. She said, “The class includes a wide range of skill levels, and all students were able to meaningfully contribute to the project. Katherine and Connor embraced the student work.” On the difficulty of creating images of real objects or landmarks, she said, “One of the main challenges was having students create realistic images without simply copying a single photograph. To address this, students researched multiple reference images and developed their final compositions by synthesizing information from at least three different sources. This encouraged both observation and original interpretation.”

            Toward the end of the process, she mentioned, “A highlight of the creative process was seeing all of the individual pieces come together in the final coloring book. Students took pride in knowing their work contributed to a larger, collaborative project connected to their community.” For a coloring book, art is obviously paramount, with Butler saying, “As educators, we aim to make art both personal and meaningful. This project accomplished that by connecting students’ work to the local community they are part of. It also serves as a strong example of how art can exist beyond the classroom and have a real-world purpose.”

            Connor Gaudet, curator and administrator at the Mattapoisett Museum, spoke on some of the work the museum did in the collaboration effort, as well as helping cultivate historic interest. He said, “The museum tried to let the students and their teachers take the lead and just act as a resource for them. They (Dr. Colin Everett’s Local History Class students) picked the landmarks they wanted to include. They wrote the historical profiles about each place. We edited the text for clarity and factuality but otherwise left the language as it was written in order to honor the students’ voices. We wanted the students to take ownership of the project and have this really represent these students at this moment in time.”

            On the importance of the book itself, he said, “Even though this is ‘just’ a coloring book, it’s also a publication of the Mattapoisett Museum, and as such I treated the students as I would anyone submitting an article or other scholarly work for publication, asking them to keep things on a factual basis and to cite sources (in pre-publication draft edits – there are no footnotes in this coloring book!) to back up their statements. I hope it was a valuable learning experience for the students, exposing them to the town’s history but also a bit of the academic and technical aspects of creating a published work. I’d love for this to pave the way for other collaborations in the future – whether in the form of another book or a student-curated exhibit – or something completely different.

            “We are excited to have the book launch just in time for summer. We’re doing a limited first print run of about 100 to see how sales go in order to judge how many we should get for the next order. We are hoping we’ll sell enough to know how many we should order before Old Colony (and their print shop) closes for the summer. In addition to those 100, an anonymous donor made it possible to print an additional 80 so that every participant could have one free of charge without any loss of inventory or sales proceeds for the museum.”

            Gaudet commended the work of the others in the effort, saying, “One challenge for me was letting myself take a step back and let the Education Committee – and particularly the chair of the committee, Katherine Roberts-Gaudet (who, full disclosure, is my mother!) be the driving force for the museum on the project. Adding a project of this size and scope to my workload would not have been possible without her and the committee coordinating with the teachers and administrators, setting up meetings, following up on the text and artwork, right through the final editorial processes. Karen Browning at ORR, was the counterpart to her, constantly keeping things moving forward on the school’s end as well. It would not have happened without either of them. Marie Foscaldo at Old Colony was also a huge help.”

            Each facet of the process worked well and hard through the challenges that presented themselves naturally across so many different organizations and fields. The unlikely team all praised the hard work of each other, and also, through their hard work and collaboration, laid the foundation for student engagement and fostering interest in their town and its history. Katherine Gaudet told us “Mattapoisett, Then and Now: A Coloring Book” will launch at the Mattapoisett Museum on Friday, May 14 at 6:00 pm.

            Not only is Bree LeFavor a local author, but she is also a 15-year-old sophomore at Old Rochester
Regional High School. LeFavor recently released Splash Safe With Sandy The Starfish: A
Swim Safety Story, an independently published story written to teach readers valuable lessons to stay safe in the water.

            The story follows Sandy the Starfish and her friend Benny on a sunny day at Silvershell Beach, as they navigate a day at the beach and explain water-safety skills they’ve learned in their time at sea.

            But the lessons aren’t just learned from a starfish, Bree learned them herself through her own time at the beach in the past. We talked to Bree’s mother, Julie LeFavor, who told The Wanderer she made the beach in her story Silvershell due to her time going there as a kid.

            She also told us some of the reasons Bree wants to highlight the importance of beach safety. “She almost drowned when she was little,” Julie said. “She has very, very vague memories of looking up from the water.” Julie described the family’s trip to the Caribbean, where Bree began to go under, and Julie had to ask the lifeguards for help as “the adults had too many children and didn’t see her go under.” She remembers the whistles blowing and herself screaming for help. She ran out and said she was lucky to find Bree as her hat floated away.

            She then said roughly two years ago, Bree and her father were out on their boat around Thanksgiving when her father went overboard. Though they were wearing their life jackets, his leg was pinned and he was under the boat. The Harbormaster had to help in the rescue, as Bree and her dad almost had hypothermia.

            Thus explains the importance Bree LeFavor places on ocean, pool, and beach safety. Along with being on the ORRHS swim team and recently being Miss Somerset’s Teen, Bree often visits local preschools to read swim safety books and draw in coloring books with students. She often volunteers her time to help teach about its importance and was inspired to write her own book. Bree wrote and illustrated the story over the last few months. She published the book, which is now available on Amazon.

By Sam Bishop