Two new career and technical programs are set to debut in Stafford County’s sixth high school, opening in 2025.
On Tuesday, the county’s School Board heard a recommendation to place aviation maintenance and advanced manufacturing programs at the new school, which will be located in Hartwood, in the southwestern portion of the county.
The aviation program would offer four areas of focus:
- Aircraft mechanics, trained to keep airplanes flying
- Aviation systems technicians, who repair the electric systems inside airplanes
- Aviation quality control technicians, who inspect airplane parts and components
- Drone pilots — those who would graduate with getting FAA certification fly unnamed aircraft
“[Drones are] a hot field that would offer students licensure when they graduate high school,” said Micheal Scullen, chairman of the school division’s capital improvement advisory committee, charged with making identify which career and technical education programs will be offered at the new school.
At the sixth high school, the aviation program will be a flagship program for the county, something not offered at other county high schools, said Scullen. More than 25,000 new planes will be put into service in the skies over the next 25 years, requiring more than 480,000 new technicians to maintain them.
Currently, the industry is losing technicians faster than it is gaining them, as many are retiring. The industry is doing a poor job recruiting new people to take their place, added Scullen. The average salary for an aircraft tech is $75,000 a year.
The new school would also need an aircraft hangar to house many of the aircraft donated for the students to repair. It could cost anywhere between $100,000 and $325,000. A similar high school aviation program in New York also has a flight simulator, 3-D printers, and a virtual reality lab added Scullen.
In neighboring Prince William County, an after-school aviation program is offered at Woodbridge Senior High School, a partnership with the Aviation Institue of Manassas. There, students are trained to be flight mechanics, and tuition for the program, valued at more than $43,000, is free.
A second career program offered at the sixth high school would be advanced manufacturing, a field where technology is used to improve means of production. Some of the largest advanced manufacturing employers in Virginia include Dupont, Honeywell, and Alloy Polymers.
“The student who is educated here in Stafford has the opportunity to practice that skill in the state,” said Scullen.
Many counties in the region, including Prince William, have identified advanced manufacturing as a “targeted” industry officials want to bring to the area. It’s estimated 2.2 million advanced manufacturing jobs will go unfilled due to lack of training.
The job has an average salary of $76,000 in the U.S. and about $86,000 in the Washington, D.C. area. The industry is most in need of program graduates who can understand code and work with machines and big data.
Dr. Elizabeth Warner, representing the Griffis-Widewater District on the School Board, asked Scullen’s committee to consider a technical program to prepare students for jobs in the green energy field. Because the field is so new, it’s difficult to know what jobs to train students to perform, Scullen replied.
“It’s something to consider as we, hopefully, move to a more green energy environment,” said Warner.
It’s unclear when or if the School Board or superintendent will decide whether or not to place these programs in the new school, a division spokeswoman said.
The county’s sixth high school has an estimated price tag of $155 million, making it one of the most expensive schools ever to be built in Virginia. Construction is slated to begin next summer.
