Prince William County Public Schools

Just four miles from Manassas Regional Airport, the busiest General Aviation airport in Virginia, students at Unity Reed High School in Prince William County are learning the aviation maintenance trade courtesy of a donated aircraft to the school. The aircraft will allow the students to gain hands-on maintenance experience in a trade that is experiencing a critical manpower shortage nationwide.

Scott Kenney, an Aviation Maintenance teacher at Unity Reed High School and Woodbridge High School, said the aircraft is a Viking Dragonfly, a two-seater plane with a cockpit less than four feet across. Summit Helicopters, a Salem, Va.-based company, donated the aircraft. Kenney said he was “very happy” to receive the donation and that it would help enhance students’ education and interest in aviation maintenance.

Prince William County Public Schools must pay a tax lien of nearly $1.4 million for alleged past-due Virginia unemployment taxes, though a school division official told InsideNoVa they believe many of the unemployment claims are fraudulent, Insidenova reports.

The National Merit Scholarship Program has selected Skye Auger at Osbourn Park High School and Joseph Dietrich at Patriot High School as 2024 National Merit Scholarship Finalists.

All finalists will be considered for National Merit scholarships awarded in 2024. The National Merit Scholarship Corporation will begin notifying scholarship winners by email in March. Prince William County Public Schools posted the news to its website and congratulated to these students for demonstrating through their high academic performance, their great potential for future academic accomplishments.