Warren Tech South’s first day report card proudly displays an F and two As.
On the students' first day back, the school also got a visit from Federal Aviation Administration officials who certified the school’s aviation maintenance technology program. Warren Tech South is the second school in Colorado and the third in the country to receive certification.
Certification involved meeting standards for instruction, curriculum, and facilities. The school’s unusual classroom environment, inside an airplane hangar, was built specifically for the program and made possible thanks to Jeffco builds bonds approved by Jefferson County voters in 2018.
Aircraft maintenance instructor Forest Bernard, Warren Tech South associate principal Eric Stout, and Warren Tech interim principal Matthew Walsh received the certificate from the FAA on August 17.
Starting this academic year, students who complete the aviation maintenance program will be eligible to take the FAA’s certification test upon graduation. That would put Warren Tech South’s aviation maintenance graduates in a rapidly growing career earning an average of $60,000 out of high school.
Walsh said he believes the career jump-start is a boon to students as well as Jefferson County as a whole.