Charlotte High School launches new aerospace programs for students

Elevating aerospace education by starting future technicians and assemblers’ young.

“Right now, in high school students can take, in 12th grade, they can dual enroll for aviation, airframe, and powerplant mechanic program,” said Brian Granstra, Director of Career and Technical Education and Career Readiness for Charlotte County Public Schools. “But starting in the 2024-2025 school year, students will be able to start as early as 9th grade at Charlotte High School with the avionics and the aviation assembly and fabrication program.”

These programs plan to take students to new heights. To teach them the ins and outs, and skills needed in the aviation and aerospace industries.

“So, think of the radio, the radar, the instrument panel, an avionics technician learns how to service those parts of the plane, so then an aviation mechanic can install those parts of the plane,” Granstra said. “So that’s a really technical, very skilled job, very high demand in Florida.”

And with these new programs, they’re going to need the space. So Granstra said they plan to build a hangar right on campus, so these high school students can have the full experience.

And so far, these students are ready for take off.

“Our enrollment from the classes for Charlotte High for the 2024-2025 [academic school year], we already reached our capacity,” said Granstra. “It’s already full already, just from our student interest. There’s no classroom built yet. There’s no hangar space, it’s just already at capacity.”

Granstra said everyone benefits.

“We’re here to help grow the economy and the community,” he said. “We want to give our students the opportunity to earn high-paying jobs. We also want to attract employers to the area to move to Charlotte County, because Charlotte County is going all in for aerospace.”