WTA Aviation Instructor Galen Wilson, student Nathaniel Spiller and
Principal Stefan Czaporowski spoke to the School Committee about the Aviation program Monday night. (Photo by Amy Porter)
WESTFIELD – Monday’s School Committee meeting in the City Council chambers opened with a presentation by staff and students of the Westfield Technical Academy.
WTA Principal Stefan Czaporowski introduced Aviation Instructor Galen Wilson to the committee members. Wilson then gave an update on the new Aviation Maintenance Training (AMT) program at the school, and the fleet of six planes the program has already obtained, with another one in the works.
Wilson said students are currently going through the “one weeks,” during which they spend one week at each of their top four shop picks. He said students coming to AMT are being introduced to atmospheric conditions, principles of flight, and flight stability. They are also building model airplanes, which they get to fly in the auditorium at the end of the week.
“It is a lot of fun,” Wilson said. “I’m really trying to pick up the kids that really want aviation.”
When asked how many students he will take, Wilson, a 30-year veteran of the Air Force, said, “Twelve to fourteen students is a comfortable range. This is my first year.” He said the number of students is not firm.
“I’m really excited about this program,” School Committee member Jeffrey Gosselin said.
Also speaking on behalf of the program was freshman Nathaniel Stiller, who Wilson said scored 103 on the exam during “one weeks.” Stiller said he has been interested in aviation since the seventh grade.
“Everything I’ve learned through Wright Flight,” he said. Wright Flight is the Aviation Science Technology Engineering and Math (STEM) program housed at Barnes Airport, which introduces students in grades 7 through 12 to the field of aviation.
Also presenting for Westfield Tech were senior Karina Shevchenko, business technology, and junior Douglas Kapinos, information technology, who reported on upcoming events at the school. They announced that the Tigers Pride restaurant is serving lunch and dessert on Wednesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays from 10:45 to 12:15, and invited the School Committee and the public to come and eat.
“Business is better than ever,” Kapinos said.
During the meeting, the School Committee voted to approve a cooperative agreement for Westfield Technical Academy to play ice hockey with St. Mary’s students. Westfield Tech has 13 players for ice hockey, who will join with six athletes from St. Mary’s. Eileen Flaherty, Westfield district’s new athletic director, said this will give the Westfield Tech students the opportunity to add ice hockey to their sports program.
There was a brief discussion before the vote regarding the cost of $16,000 for the ice bill to play hockey.
“Parents do a lot of fundraising,” Mat Collins, St. Mary’s athletic director said. “Last year, the kids didn’t pay a penny.”
With no fundraising, the cost for students would be $800 per year, which is unique among school sports. The cooperative agreement must also be approved by the Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association (MIAA), which votes on Wednesday.
During her report, Scallion also brought up finances.
“We have the tightest budget I’ve ever worked with,” Scallion said. She said she wanted to alert the School Committee that the schools may be over budget in out of district placements this year. One student was recently placed following a settlement hearing at a cost of $320,000 per year. She said the current cost of unanticipated out of district placements is $515,000, with another potential placement of $237,000 being negotiated.
“The good news is a lot of this is reimbursed via Circuit Breaker,” Scallion said. Circuit Breaker is a special education claims reimbursement program of the state Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE). Scallion said the costs would not be reimbursed until next year.
“We look better than most districts that are even smaller,” said School Committee vice chair Ramon Diaz, Jr., noting that the cost in out of district placements for comparable districts is $4 million.
Another program that is “at capacity” is ELL (English Language Learners), according to Scallion. She said there have been twenty-three new students in ELL since opening day, from seven different countries. The district has two new ELL teachers. “One was a very expensive replacement of someone who left us,” she said. “We could be coming back to you and saying we need another ELL teacher.”
“I just wanted you to know these numbers are really tight,” she said.
