The Ozarks Technical Community College Board of Trustees approved buying aircraft that will become important classroom materials in the future.
During its meeting on Wednesday, the board approved spending $1 million on three airplanes and a helicopter that will be used in the college’s upcoming aviation maintenance program. The money will come from a federal grant awarded by the U.S. Department of Labor, according to documentation from the college.
The four aircraft will be used as demonstration models for all sorts of aviation trades, from airframe repair to the wiring inside, as well as the engines used to lift the aircraft into the sky, said Kyle McKee, chair of the college’s aviation department.
“They have a variety of systems,” McKee said. “Students will be ready for any area of the aviation industry, whether it is general maintenance all the way up to airlines.”
Two of the craft are labeled as general aviation light airplanes — one of them is equipped with a piston-driven single engine and tricycle landing gear, and the other meets the FAA’s definition of a “complex” airplane, featuring retractable landing gear, flaps and a controllable pitch propeller.
The third plane is a general aviation craft capable of holding turbine engines, and the helicopter is a small, general aviation vehicle with a single engine and two-blade rotor.
The aircraft will be kept at the college’s training school at the Springfield-Branson Airport. McKee said they will need to be kept outside until the college’s new aviation maintenance building is completed; a delivery date for the aircraft has not yet been determined.
Construction about to start
The program will be housed in a building projected to cost between $12 million and $15 million, funded mainly through money from the American Recovery Plan Act. OTC has received almost $10 million in ARPA grants for the project via allocations from the U.S. Department of Labor, state of Missouri, City of Springfield and Greene County.
College officials hope to construct a building with anywhere from 15,000-22,500 square feet of space. Mark Miller, chief media relations officer for OTC, said that construction bids should be submitted and reviewed this week. Once that evaluation is completed, the college will have a better idea of a schedule for groundbreaking and completion.
Because of deadlines for using the money, the college has had to purchase equipment before the training center is completed. In June, the OTC Board of Trustees approved spending $622,263.44 for a flight simulator, welding simulator and HVAC equipment.
OTC hopes to start its first aviation maintenance students on their degree paths in 2025, with an initial cohort size of up to 25 students, McKee said. That opening can’t come soon enough for a program already in demand, he said.
“Almost every week someone contacts me about it,” McKee said. “Either a student looking to enter the program, or someone in the industry looking to hire and when we will have people ready.”
Renovation projects
In other business the board approved expenditures for the completion of renovation projects at its Industry and Transportation Technology Center and Lincoln Hall.
The board approved:
- $53,378.14 for equipment, supplies and services for the ITTC building, including trash and recycling containers, low-voltage cables, portable welding tables and welder cord plug ends, as well as additional electrical outlets and data connections for a room not included in the original project.
- $183,633.57 for equipment, supplies and services for medical instruction in the Lincoln building, including flooring materials, glass boards, a tourniquet system, harmonic scalpels, an HD surgical camera system, laparoscopic simulator and surgical table, as well as additional architectural fees for expanding the college’s medical assistant program.
When the ITTC renovation is completed, it will increase the college’s available welding bays by 36, to 86 total. And the expansion in Lincoln will allow the college to add a medical assistant program.
Welding remains one of its most popular programs, said Robyn Gordon, dean of technical education for the college, and nursing programs also remain high in popularity. The renovation work will make both buildings easier for students to tour, which will help attract more students.
It will also help the college reach out to middle- and high-school students, Gordon said.
“One thing we have been envisioning is some experiences for students, so they can be immersed in the possibility of what the future could look like,” Gordon said. “We start a little bit late by focusing on high school.”
