What's Your Region's Economic DNA? Lessons for CTE from an Aviation High School

How can CTE listen to regional economic and workforce needs and build a vision so big that others can't help but support it?

Matt Kirchner sits down with Adam Snoddy, Principal of the @ButlerTech Aviation Center, to explore how one district used its regional economic identity to design a world-class CTE program.

Adam walks us through how the program launched in 2019 and quickly outgrew its original model. Today, Butler Tech is opening a 20,000 sq. ft. aviation high school and 8,500 sq. ft. hangar, backed by $15 million in district, county, JobsOhio, and city investment.

The real story? This aviation program is a template. Whether your region is built on advanced manufacturing, healthcare, logistics, energy, agriculture, or something entirely different, Butler Tech’s approach offers a roadmap for building CTE around local industry, future workforce demand, and transferable technical skills.

In this video:
➡️ How regional economic DNA shaped Butler Tech’s aviation program and why every CTE district should start here
➡️ What a $15 million aviation campus means for students, industry, and community partners 
➡️ Why Butler Tech begins 10th grade with a full exploration year before pathway selection
➡️ How flight, maintenance, and engineering pathways work, and why engineering starts in the maintenance hangar
➡️ What every CTE leader can take from this model, even if their region has nothing to do with aviation

Chapters:
00:00 Introduction
01:58 Meet Adam Snoddy
02:41 Why Aviation Belongs in Southwest Ohio
08:37 The New Aviation Campus
13:58 The $15 Million Investment
19:12 Shifting to Student Pathways
20:37 Year One: Intro to Aviation
22:47 Flight Pathway
26:53 Maintenance Pathway
32:03 Engineering Pathway
34:14 Where Students Go After Graduation
42:08 Identifying Your Region’s Economic DNA
44:04 Applying This Model to Other CTE Programs
50:55 The Future of Learning and CTE
54:23 Closing Thoughts

Resources:
👉 Check out the episode page: https://techedpodcast.com/butlertech
👉 Learn more about Butler Tech Aviation Center: https://www.butlertech.org/program/av...

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