Alcoa City Schools and Blount County Schools have both been awarded $50,000 each in Perkins Reserve Grants from the Tennessee Department of Education for their Career and Technical Education Programs in the 2024-2025 school year.
Alcoa City Schools
ACS is using the grant, paired with a $25,000 grant from the Tennessee Department of Transportation Aeronautics Division, to create a new program for 11th and 12th-grade students to begin training for their private pilot license.
The program, which works in conjunction with AvZ Flight School, will take the students from groundwork training all the way to obtaining their license to fly, if they so choose.
Director of Career and Technical Education, Federal Programs, Grants Management Patricia Thomas said if a student were interested in taking on pilot training and testing on their own, they would be looking at spending between $12,000 to $13,000.
Under this new program, AHS will bring the ground school to the classroom with licensed flight instructors, paid for through the grant; then, the students will put in 40 hours of flight time for their private pilot license.
For students who want to fly higher than our stratosphere, this program could set them up for careers in NASA and even space exploration, Thomas said.
Thomas said they are looking for students committed to learning how to pilot, willing to work outside of school hours and who have a strong math and science background.
Thomas said she was inspired to help students pursue aviation because of her father.
Her father had an 8th-grade education, then joined the military during WW2 and joined the US Army Air Corps.
“He was a little scrawny 110-pound guy, tall and skinny, and they assigned him to a unit where he was doing aviation maintenance,” she said.
Thomas said he was assigned to aviation maintenance because his size allowed him to squeeze into tight spaces.
While in the military, he flew on a B-17 bomber.
“I thought, you know, that’s a sign that anybody can achieve a goal and do things, and that’s kind of where my heart was with aviation,” Thomas said.
Thomas said she is passionate about CTE programming.
She started out as a registered nurse before she got into education. Thomas said that in high school, she didn’t have opportunities to get involved with CTE programming, which often includes nursing classes.
Even though Thomas was in the top 10 percent of her graduating class, she said when she started studying nursing in college, she found she was behind those who already had LPN and nursing assistant training and had to fight to catch back up.
“It gives kids a good idea of what they really want to do before they leave high school,” Thomas said.
CTE classes aren’t just for students looking for a career or seeking extra training before college.
Thomas recalled a student who signed up for a mechatronics class but planned on studying political science in college. When Thomas asked why she was interested in taking the class, Thomas said she replied, “I figured if I learn to do this now, when I get out and have my own place, I can do it myself. I don’t have to pay an electrician to come in and do it for me.”
Blount County Schools
Over at Blount County Schools, they are putting the grant money to use by creating a new HVAC program at Eagleton College and Career Academy, as well as to help supplement the school’s agricultural program.
CTE programs are an important area that can help prepare students for a career after graduation, said CTE & Federal Programs Supervisor & Title IX Coordinator Dr. Alisa Teffeteller.
The courses, which are electives for students, give them the training they need to either start work after graduation or to help prepare them for post-secondary education.
Even if the student wants to go on to college and study something different, they at least have a skill to fall back on should anything happen, Teffeteller explained.
She also emphasized the importance of CTE classes in helping students understand notoriously difficult courses like math and science in a hands-on environment. Teffeteller said that data indicates that students enrolled in CTE programs see an improvement in their math and science skills.
The program will provide training in heating, electrical, air ventilation, and plumbing, focusing mainly on heat and air.
Teffeteller said HVAC is a high-demand, high-skill job in this area, which is why she wanted to create the program.
“I’m using career and not just job because many people change jobs quite frequently, and we’re looking for someone to move into a career that they can stay established for a long period of time that can be a sustainable wage for them to have,” she said.
Teffeteller said the grant was highly focused on work-based learning which is what they intend to get started at Eagleton.
“We’re hoping to build for our students who have not ever had any (work-based learning) to start doing some work-based learning in that area of HVAC,” she said.
Teffeteller stressed the importance of CTE classes in learning skills that will be valuable to employers, such as leadership, teamwork, soft skills and communication skills.
“Also, I say college isn’t for every kid, but kids have to have more than just a high school diploma when they leave here now. And so we offer a whole array of industry certifications that can make a student employable as soon as they walk out our door,” she said.
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