The Hanover County School Board on Tuesday night heard a proposal to add heating, ventilation and air-conditioning courses at the Hanover Center for Trades and Technology.
The move would bolster Hanover's career and technical education offerings for high school students.
If approved, the classes would be open to students in grades 10 through 12. Bob Staley, director of secondary education for the school district, said there is a continued need locally and throughout Virginia for qualified HVAC technicians.
"It will prepare students to install, to repair and maintain the operating conditions of heating, air-conditioning and refrigeration systems," Staley said.
Students also would work with piping and tubing, study heat and electricity, install duct systems and learn the necessary skills to comply with Environmental Protection Agency regulations, he said.
At the end of the three-course program, students would be prepared to take the EPA Certification of Refrigerant Recovery and/or North American Technician Excellence certification exams, Staley said.
A HVAC advisory committee was formed to research the feasibility of adding the course to the district's offerings. School officials visited HVAC programs in other Virginia localities and toured a local firm, James River Heating and Air Conditioning.
"It's exciting to see this course and to know that there are numerous job opportunities associated with this program," said board member Earl J. Hunter Jr. "What a student can learn here can be very, very beneficial."
School enrollment rises
Michael E. Thornton, the assistant superintendent for business and operations, told the School Board that the K-12 enrollment as of Tuesday — the sixth day of school — was 18,181 students, which exceeded the school district's forecasted K-12 enrollment for the school year.
"That's a relatively new trend for us over the last four years," Thornton said. "If you recall, the three prior years we were on a declining trend. What we're starting to see, we hope, will be a flattening out of that decline."
Thornton said the count is unofficial; fall membership on Sept. 30, which will be submitted to the Virginia Department of Education, will represent the official K-12 enrollment in Hanover County for the school year.
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