MONTAGUE — After only 11 days on the job as the state’s new secretary of education, Stephen Zrike Jr. paid a visit to Franklin County Technical School to tour the hangar that houses the new Aviation Maintenance Technology Program.
Zrike was joined by other state officials for a tour of the 12,000-square-foot facility, including Assistant Secretary for Career Education Bob LePage and state Rep. Susannah Whipps, I-Athol, with local representation from the town of Montague, the Franklin Tech School Committee, and school administrators and teachers.
The Aviation Maintenance Technology Program was certified by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) as an Airframe training facility earlier this year, allowing the school to begin implementing the curriculum and allowing students to start logging hours toward their future Airframe certifications.
According to the Aviation Institute of Maintenance, a training facility that holds an Airframe certification can work on the structural parts of an aircraft, like the landing gear, fuselage and wings. The Airframe rating is one half of the certification used for aircraft mechanics; the other half is Powerplant, which clears them to work on aircraft engines.
“This is an awesome place,” Zrike commented near the end of his visit. “I’m so excited for kids to be able to access this experience, and [this is the] first time I’ve ever come to an aviation program like this, and to see that a high school will be offering this is really exciting.”
Last Monday’s visit from officials with the Executive Office of Education coincided with the newly proclaimed “413 Day,” where state and local leadership hosted events across western Massachusetts. Earlier in the day, Lt. Gov. Kim Driscoll and Secretary of Housing and Livable Communities Juana Matias visited Gill to announce 29 new Housing Choice Communities, with Matias also visiting Erving to learn about the Evergreen Circle housing project and Driscoll going to Berkshire East Mountain Resort in Charlemont for a roundtable discussion about regional recreation.
Richard Martin, superintendent of Franklin County Technical School, speaks in the school’s airplane hangar on Monday. 
A plane sits outside of Franklin County Technical School’s airplane hangar on Monday. 
Aviation instructors Michael McIntyre and Erica Malonado speak with guests at Franklin County Technical School’s airplane hangar on Monday. 
Aviation instructor Michael McIntyre guides the Executive Office of Education’s Director of Legislative Affairs Stephen Coakley, left, and Secretary of Education Stephen Zrike Jr., right, through a flight simulation at Franklin County Technical School on Monday.
The hangar has classroom space and features various pieces of aviation electronics, called avionics, as well as a hydraulics room and a dark room used to examine aircraft equipment and pieces for small cracks. Students have access to jet engine mock-ups to learn the mechanisms. One of the unique features of the hangar is a 20,000-pound door that opens to access the tarmac behind the building. During the tour, Zrike and others had a chance to test out a flight simulator inside one of the classrooms.
Retiring Superintendent Richard Martin detailed how the creation of the hangar and the Aviation Maintenance Technology Program was made possible by a $4.2 million Skills Capital Grant that the school received in December 2022, with support from LePage. Martin said that the development of the hangar and the educational program represents an opportunity to “support these graduates” in entering a high-demand industry.
One of the tour’s attendees was Mario Sousa, director of career and technical education at Salem Public Schools, who is interested in finding a way to bring something like Franklin Tech’s Aviation Maintenance Technology Program to eastern Massachusetts.
Sousa said that given the Salem Public Schools’ proximity to greater Boston and the Hanscom Air Force Base, an aviation program would sit near industry hubs, and he’s looking at how Franklin Tech was able to use a Skills Capital Grant to develop its facility.
“I’m thinking more of just the facility itself, and how [Martin] was able to use a Skills Capital Grant to build this facility,” Sousa said, adding that his takeaway from the tour is “twofold” in what his district could offer students educationally and what kind of facility can be built with grant assistance.
Having started in January, Erica Malonado is the newest aviation maintenance technology instructor at Franklin Tech, bringing a background in general aviation and aviation education. In her time with the district, she said she’s seen the program’s students take initiative and take advantage of extra learning opportunities when they arise. She added that she hopes Zrike, in his role with the Executive Office of Education, will be supportive of the program and help it continue to grow.
“I hope that he feels that we’re moving in the right direction, and he continues to give us whatever support we need to keep boosting the program, so we can bring in the Powerplant [certification] and bring in more students across the board,” she said.
When asked about how he wants to promote this type of career technical education and see it grow, Zrike said he sees the demand for career technical education across the state, and the goal of the Healey-Driscoll administration is to find ways to bolster career technical education opportunities for high schoolers.
To keep up with the interest from high school students to pursue this type of education, Zrike said there also needs to be an understanding of where there’s a market for new workers, and high school career technical education programs need to be developed with these industry needs in mind.
“I think we’ve got to continue to have dialogue with our employers to better understand where, especially with the advance of AI … are the places we’re going to need trained, skilled workers, and I think, as a state, we have to follow suit,” he said. “We have to design programs, and [Franklin Tech] is a clear example of where that happens.”
