Local business owner Tom Burton hired to teach the new class

Hamilton High School is excited to kick off the 2024–25 school year with a new Career and Technical Education program: HVAC—Heating, Ventilation and Air Conditioning. With so many of our students going to the Careerline Tech Center in their junior and senior years, many students are placed on a waiting list and ultimately unable to attend because of the limited number of spots. Hamilton Community Schools wants to create other CTE opportunities for our students right on our campus. Hamilton already has one CTE program at HHS, Business Development, which is also growing from one section to three this coming school year.

HVAC will be taught by longtime Hamilton coach and business owner Tom Burton. Burton brings over 30 years of HVAC experience as owner of Burton Heating and Cooling. He is also a Hamilton graduate and has been a proud community member engaged in Hamilton Schools with nearly 50 combined years of coaching football and baseball. His passion for our district and his lifelong career is evident, which makes him a perfect leader for the start of this program at Hamilton High School.

“I’ve been telling people that we need to do something in our schools for HVAC because we simply don’t have the pipeline of kids anymore,” Burton explained. “Over the past year, it’s been a lot of work from everybody involved. I was retiring from the business after 35 years anyway to let my son run it, and my wife wants to work a few more years, so I thought it’d be a perfect opportunity to teach the program.”

Over the summer, an area of Hamilton High School was renovated to accommodate the new course. In addition to the renovations, many community partners generously donated tools, equipment and funds to support the program startup. Thank you to the following businesses for their support and donations: Buhler Young, Buist Electric, Burton Heating and Cooling, DHE Plumbing and Mechanical, Godwin Plumbing, Perrigo, Quality Air Heating and Cooling, Trane, VanDyken Mechanical and Williams Distributing.

Throughout the summer, Burton put in countless hours of work to prepare for the course that fall, one that he hoped would continue to grow over the years and even expand into other trades.

“For this to start at the school level, I think this is just going to snowball and get bigger and bigger every year. If this goes well, which I think it will, maybe there will be opportunity for other trades and more classes in the future in plumbing, electrical, things like that,” Burton added.

This new program was spearheaded internally by Work-Based Learning Coordinator Ashley Meyer and Mat Rehkopf, now the Director of Career, College and Innovative Programs at HCS, to help expand unique opportunities like these for our students.

“We hope the HVAC program is one of many new hands-on Career and Technical Education electives we add in the very near future,” said Rehkopf. “We are thankful for the hard work Mr. Burton has put into helping make this program a reality. His passion for HVAC is dwarfed by his passion for the Hamilton community and his desire to serve the students of Hamilton High School.”