SALINEVILLE — A $5,000 contribution from Williams, a major energy infrastructure company, is supporting welding and heavy equipment students at the Utica Shale Academy (USA).

Superintendent Bill Watson said the company allocated funds earlier this month through its annual charitable giving budget. This marks the second time the community school has benefitted from the energy firm, which presented another $5,000 last year for training equipment to enhance the Programmable Logic Controllers (PLC) program.

“We will provide 110 pairs of steel-toe work boots for all of the kids participating in the welding and heavy equipment program,” Watson said. “It’s a yearly earmark and last year we received funding for a PLC trainer.”

He said the latest windfall will provide safety for students as they train for the workplace.

“We are very grateful and thankful, and this allows kids to learn while being safe,” he added. “It is important with career-tech education. You are not only training a student, but you are training a safety mindset also.”

USA is a dropout recovery-and-retention school focusing on career-tech education for at-risk students who have obtained more than 1,100 certifications and graduated 150 pupils since 2021. About 145 students in grades 7-12 are enrolled during the 2024-25 school term, with the seventh- and eighth-graders housed at the Williams Collaboration Center to learn about career-tech opportunities and grades 9-12 lodged at the Hutson Building to gain hands-on learning in various trades. Courses include megatronics, hydraulics, pneumatics, AC/DC electric, PLC’s, diesel mechanics and horticulture.

Since its inception roughly a decade ago, USA has established a campus in Salineville comprised of the Hutson Building, the Energy Training Center, the Williams Collaboration Center and an outdoor welding site along East Main Street, as well as the Utica Shale Academy Community Center on Church Street that provides a gym and community services.