WESTFIELD – Westfield Superintendent Dr. Suzanne Scallion is leading efforts to improve dropout and graduation rates in the city’s high schools and has an affinity for developing alternative programs to encourage students to stay in school.
To this end, she is looking to expand offerings at Westfield Vocational Technical High School, which had an increase in graduation rates and a decrease in dropout rates this year.
In a year’s time, the Voke’s four-year cohort, or group of students who started as ninth-graders and graduated twelfth grade together, increased in size by five students, while it’s graduation rate increased by 1.2 percent to 75.5 percent, and it’s dropout rate decreased by 0.6 percent to 11.3 percent.
One plan being explored to spur continued improvement in these rates is a potential aviation program for students at WVTHS.
“We’re currently working actively behind the scenes on that,” Scallion said, adding that the idea came from WVTHS Principal Stefan Czaporowski. “It’s Stefan’s baby.”
Hoping to work with and capitalize on the Gulfstream Aerospace Corporation’s recent decision to expand to Barnes Regional Airport, Czaporowski is excited for his students to potentially take flight.
“It all started when we sent some students up to Gulfstream last year for the ‘Walk in your Boots’ program,” Czaporowski said, adding that the school’s General Advisory Chairman, Ed Watson of Mobius Works, is an aviation enthusiast who has helped nurture the idea of an avionics program. “Since then we’ve spoken with the Federal Aviation Administration and the Department of Transportation about it, too.”
The FAA’s “Walk in your Boots” program is where local students were able to shadow Gulfstream employees. Czaporowski said that this program would likely be housed at Barnes Regional Airport and would be a freshman exploratory program at first to see just how much interest it would garner from students.
“Having Barnes right here is a great asset,” he added. “And since the program isn’t under Chapter 74, it doesn’t need approval from the state.”
“We’re still in the early stages of work on the program,” said Heidi Fedak, a spokesperson for Gulfstream. “It’s a good thing to expose students to aviation careers, as well as careers involving science and technology, as well as engineering and math.”
Fedak added that Gulfstream’s Westfield growth is proof that it is committed to the city and potential aviation students.
“Any program that exposes students to piloting, maintenance tech and avionics tech skills is great to have,” she said.
Watson also sees the value of bringing in an avionics program, and doesn’t think any time should be wasted in implementation.
“We want to have it going by September,” he said. “The big issue is funding, but that’s where I come in, as I’m going to help seek it out.”
The Chief Executive Officer of Mobius Works, a Westfield-based information technology company, is in his first year as chairman of the school’s advisory board, after serving as an advisor for it’s Computer and Technology Department. He has been floored by the dedication of the school’s students and staff and the quality of instruction.
“The model this school has, with advisors from area industry telling the school what they’re looking for, it’s unique.” he said. “And the aviation industry is poised for major growth in the next few years. The pilots are getting older. Smaller, more economical planes are being built, and they need to be piloted, repaired and worked on.”
“The Federal Aviation Administration is saying that by 2030, 650,000 aircraft maintenance workers will be needed,” said Chris Willenborg, executive director of the Massachusetts Aeronautics Commission, who served previously as Barnes Regional Airport’s manager for eight years. “There are numerous businesses involved in the maintaining of aircraft, at Barnes and across the state.”
Willenborg estimates there are about 50 aircraft maintenance facilities all over the Commonwealth, and that fostering the development of future workers is imperative.
“Our goal is to implement two or three other programs at other schools around the state,” he said. “We’re in the very early stages (of planning), so we’re doing our due dilligence to see what the cost would be. Between the FAA, MassDOT, the school, and the airport, we’re working to figure out how to fund it.”
Watson is gung ho about getting the wheels off the runway by September, but Willenborg says the launch date depends heavily on the type of program it becomes and isn’t ruling it out.
“If it’s a general aviation program that is tied into existing programs at the Voke, then a year may be doable,” he said.
Rob Ollari, WVTHS director of student services, believes that an industry that will be in need of 650,000 workers in 16 years will require workers with a technical aptitude that WVTHS students already possess.
“Mechanics, collision tech for body work, there is a huge need for these positions, in addition to pilots, and we have students who are in mechanical and collision tech shops right now,” he said. “This program would be a good fit for the Voke.”
Ollari said that students who will enter the prospective program would be undergoing an intensive four-year undertaking, but would graduate with an Airframe and Powerplant, or A&P, license allowing them to work on aircraft right out of school.
“This type of program isn’t something that is common throughout the Commonwealth,” Ollari said, reiterating that the program is still in the very early stages and that a lot of legwork is yet to be done on the local to federal level. “Having Gulfstream in our backyard and the 104th down the road… This would be great for the school, for the community, and for western Mass.”
Watson is preparing to personally fly a group of students to Queens Aviation High School in New York City, one of the few avionics-focused high schools in the northeast, next month, and is enthusiastic about the potential of an avionics program in Westfield, a city with a storied history in flight.
“The 104th Air National Guard has been here since everyone can remember. The airport first opened in 1929, I think, and every machine shop in the city makes something or another for airplanes,” he said. “This is an aviation town.”
