Ninth and tenth graders at Bessemer’s new Alabama Aerospace and Aviation High School had a chance to demonstrate what they’re learning during a visit from Gov. Kay Ivey on Monday morning.

“This is an impressive, impressive school,” Ivey said. “You know, we’re growing the future generations. And we’ve got a pilot shortage and a shortage in maintenance of aircraft. So this school is doing amazing things to help our students not only learn STEM education, but also prepare for a real, meaningful career.”

Ivey walked the halls, watching students using virtual reality headsets to learn about proportional relationships in trigonometry and seeing the hands-on learning students do to maintain airplanes.

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The charter school in the Birmingham metro opened in August 2022. It currently enrolls about 90 ninth-graders, and plans to expand to enroll tenth-graders in the fall of 2023.

The school houses two small aircraft in a large open-air space that was once a gym.

Ivey watched as half a dozen students operated drones that they built, the machines whizzing within a net-enclosed structure.

“When you first come here,” tenth-grader Finn Payne explained, “you have one year to pick what pathway you’re going to do and that’s between pilot aerospace engineering, computer science, and then you have aircraft maintenance.”

Sophomore Jori Daniel said she’s planning to study aerospace. “I like the whole idea of space and infinite possibilities,” she said. Her cousin works with NASA, she said, and when she saw an ad for the school scroll by on Facebook, she knew she wanted to attend.

Emory Wilson, a freshman, said his dad worked on planes. “I’m here now because as a kid, I always wanted to do aviation.” His mom showed him an ad for the school and he signed up, he said.

Ivey pledged more support for public charter schools in her state of the state address last week.

She told reporters she is in talks with legislators about providing startup funds for charter schools, adding, “So they not only open up but stay open and thrive.”

“People need to recognize we’re a public school,” founder Ruben Morris said. “We’re here to make sure that underserved kids have the opportunity to access high-paying jobs.”

Morris said he’s thankful for the level of exposure Ivey’s visit brought to the students and the teachers.

The school currently is operating in the former Bessemer High School building, built in 1923. Plans are to build a new school at the Bessemer Airport, with groundbreaking scheduled for next year.