MIDDLETOWN, Ohio — A $15 million project in Butler County will soon be one of the first aviation-specific, public-school facilities in the region as part of Butler Tech's aviation program.
The program began in 2019, teaching high school juniors and seniors skills for three types of aviation careers.
“We have three different pathways for the students currently. We have a pilot pathway … our second pathway is the aircraft maintenance pathway … and then the third pathway is engineering," said Butler Tech aviation instructor Richard Packer.
Since the program’s inception, there's been a rise in interest from students.
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“This is a program that Butler Tech has had for the last few years, but one of the issues has been that we’ve always had is a higher number of student applications than we’ve had seats to offer,” said Adam Snoody, principal of the Butler Tech Aviation Center.
In January, they’ll move to the brand new building and expand not only what they can do, but also their class sizes.
The aviation program currently teaches 80 kids. Snoddy said they plan to teach 150 in the next few years.
The new building will have six classrooms, an open multi-purpose space, and an outdoor hangar for planes, classroom use and labs. It will also allow the program to include sophomores.
But the program will do more than just increase class sizes.
“It helps us meet local industry demand. There’s a lot of employers that are looking for mechanics locally, and there’s a huge shortage of pilots as well,” Packer said. “So we’re really preparing to bring students into aviation because the opportunities are just all over the place right now.”
It’s preparing students like Michael Herr, a junior in the aviation program.
“I’d like to be a commercial airline pilot,” Herr said.
He told us that this program gives him a head start in that career before he even graduates.
We asked Herr what he was most looking forward to about the new building.
“Seeing everyone else at the building, we’ll all be together, and it’s a really cool building,” Herr said. “We’ve got new, cutting-edge technology ... new simulators, so I’m excited for that.”
