School to open this fall in Huntsville, Alabama

JANUARY 23, 2020 – The Alabama School of Cyber Technology & Engineering (ASCTE) made several announcements on Thursday, including new funding streams and leadership team hires.

• Facebook will contribute $100,000 to the school’s foundation. Katie Comer, Facebook’s Regional Community Development Manager, presented a check on behalf of the company and said Facebook is committed to making strong investments in the next generation of workers. Facebook is currently building a large data center in Huntsville.
• Sentar will contribute $100,000. Peter and Karen Kiss, the owners, said the school is serving an important need for the nation, training future cyber security workers.
• DESE will contribute $50,000. Michael Kirkpatrick, the company’s president, said this is something his father Wally Kirkpatrick believed in and strongly supported, and the company is proud to partner with the school and help train our future workforce.

To date, the school’s foundation has raised close to $11 million locally. The goal is to raise $35 million from throughout the state.

Matt Massey is President of ASCTE and presented updates on recent hires for his leadership team, who include subject matter experts industry and higher education. They are joining the team from other parts of Alabama, as well as out of state.  Massey also thanked Oakwood University, who had several representatives in attendance, including Dr. Leslie Pollard, the President. The school will open this fall at Oakwood, as the interim site for the first two years, as its permanent location is built at the intersection of Bradford Drive and Wynn Drive in Cummings Research Park.

Construction is expected to be finished in the summer of 2022. Initial enrollment is approximately 100 students, with plans to expand to 300 in grades 9-12, with approximately half living on campus in dormitories.
The ASCTE is a public state-level magnet school that will accept students from each of Alabama’s 67 counties. Massey said school representatives will be at Scholar Bowl events this Saturday throughout Alabama to share information about the school with students and parents. The application process is open – just visit ascte.org.

The Alabama School of Cyber Technology & Engineering Foundation is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization and catalyst for the school, with the mission to partner with industry, local, state, and federal government agencies, and advanced academia to aid in developing and executing a visionary strategy, raise funding, and build/manage the facilities for the school. The foundation will also assist with funding for equipment and curriculum development along with extra-curricular and margin of excellence programs.

Contact:
Priscilla Krause
[email protected]

PeggyLee Wright
[email protected]