business backgrounder | employment & workplace
The Future of Education:
Raisbeck Aviation High School
Daniel C. Brunell
Raisbeck Aviation High School is changing the high school experience for students
and how education interacts with the businesses in Washington state.
South Boeing Field, across the street from the Museum of Flight,
might not seem like the ideal place for a high school. Yet for one
school, it’s the perfect location.
Raisbeck Aviation High School, which moved into a new building last fall on the museum’s campus, is in this heart of Washington
state’s aviation industry.
The building gives students dramatic vistas of the Museum of
Flight’s outdoor exhibit featuring the Concorde, the “City of Everett” Boeing 747, and other important aircraft from their classrooms
and cafeteria. It also puts them in close proximity to nearly 200
aviation-related businesses.
This year marks the beginning of a new chapter for one of Washington state’s boldest public school experiments. When the school
was created in 2004, it struggled to find a place to call home. Two
location moves and nine years later, Raisbeck Aviation High School
32 association of washington business
“It’s been our experience that once a business
discovers that the barriers to having a student
intern are lower than they expected, they really
embrace the idea. Once they meet the students
and discover their passion and work ethic, we find
that businesses stay with us and even expand the
number of opportunities for students.”
— Julie Burr, program manager for Raisbeck Aviation
High School’s Department of Career Readiness
finally opened the doors to their new $43.5 million campus last September. Only $18.5 million of this expense came from local, state,