John Marston, president of the Lenoir County Committee of 100, presents a grant check for $14,200 to Amy Jones, LCPS’s director of high school education and CTE, to fund an aerospace engineering program expected to get off the ground next school year. They are flanked by Keely Koonce, left, of Lenoir County Economic Development, and LCPS Associate Superintendent Frances Herring.

Lenoir County Public Schools will use a $14,200 grant from the Lenoir County Committee of 100 to create a new curriculum designed to help sustain a rapidly expanding aerospace industry here.

The funds will provide materials and specialized teacher training required to get an aerospace engineering program off the ground at North Lenoir and South Lenoir high schools next school year. The new coursework will be folded into Project Lead the Way engineering programs already active at the schools as part of the district’s Career and Technical Education (CTE) program.

“At both schools, we needed a refresh on their second-level engineering pathways,” said Amy Jones, LCPS’s director of high school education and CTE. “When I looked at the labor market data, talked to Lenoir County Economic Development and, through my involvement with the local Aerospace Consortium Task Force, learned about the growth of the aerospace corridor here in Lenoir County, it seemed like the right time to bring on something in the aerospace field.”

Aerospace and aviation have become an emphasis of economic development in Lenoir County and of the N.C. Global TransPark here since Spirit AeroSystems began manufacturing composite jetliner parts at the GTP 10 years ago. The industry now offers a range of local employment opportunities, from aviation at flyExclusive’s charter jet operation, to manufacturing at Spirit and maintenance at Mountain Air Cargo and JetStream.

Late last year, the GTP landed Miami-based Aircraft Solutions USA, which decommissions – or recycles – aircraft for commercial and military clients. Aircraft Solutions is expected to employ 475 workers at an average annual salary of $47,000.

“The aerospace sector is growing exponentially right now,” Keely Koonce, interim director of Lenoir County Economic Development, said. “We’re getting a lot of looks and a lot of visits from aerospace-related companies. Lenoir County Public School’s mission fits perfectly with our mission, especially for workforce.”

LCPS has in recent years tailored training in its higher level CTE classes to local job opportunities and the prospects for additional training and certification through Lenoir Community College. 

Last year, for example, the district added a computer-integrated machining class at Kinston High, teaching skills that have broad application in manufacturing. Similarly, the new aerospace engineering program will give students who have completed a basic course to dive deeper into vocabulary and concepts, to get hands-on training and take advantage of job shadowing opportunities.

Kinston High School and Spirit already partner on an internship program, and Jones thinks the new curriculum will make more students aware of job prospects in a growing field in their own back yard.

“For our students, it’s going to expose them to something they had not considered,” she said. “I think a lot of students don’t think of something like aerospace as a career. When they see a company like Spirit in our area, they think of manufacturing. Spirit is that, but they are manufacturing parts of an airplane, machines that fly. The expansion in aerospace at the TransPark, from what I understand, is going to be pretty explosive over the next couple of years. I want our students to be well positioned for that.”

Students who discover they’re interested in that type of career can continue their preparation at numerous post-secondary institutions, including LCC, East Carolina University and Elizabeth City State University, which offers an aerospace degree program.

Lenoir County Committee of 100 president John Marston sees the grant to LCPS as an investment in workforce development. “This is an absolutely wonderful project for what we’re trying to do,” he said of the new aerospace engineering curriculum. “With the (Aircraft Solutions) announcement we just had, we have to have a workforce and we have to have it quick. The college is doing what it can and Lenoir County Public Schools is doing what it can, so we had to kick in. The committee was 100 percent in favor of it.”