Aviation lab, expanded academics help St. John’s Northwestern chart a new course

Education & Workforce Development Aviation lab, expanded academics help St. John’s Northwestern chart a new course By Hunter Turpin Nov 13, 2026 10:35 am Share Email Facebook X Linkedin Copy URL Subscribe to BizTimes Daily – Local news about the people, companies and issues that impact business in Milwaukee and Southeast Wisconsin. Learn more about: St. John's Northwestern Academies Eric Sanchez Paul Gardetto When Paul Gardetto graduated from St. John’s Northwestern in 1981, he left with a clear idea of what he wanted to do with his life: build habitats where humans could live in outer space. He said the Delafield seventh-through-12th-grade school helped give him the confidence to pursue that ambition and went on to study muscle and bone atrophy in zero gravity in graduate school before spending 30 years in the Air Force, working as an aerospace physiologist who trained pilots, flight surgeons and astronauts. He never did build that space habitat, but now he’s back at St. John’s Northwestern to help the next generation of students explore careers in aviation and aerospace . - Advertisement - Gardetto has spent hundreds of hours helping develop St. John’s Northwestern’s aviation program, including building and donating six flight simulators for a new aeronautics laboratory at the school. The lab is part of what school leaders call an evolution underway at St. John’s Northwestern, which is working to broaden its identity beyond the military-school reputation that has defined it for its 141-year history. Traditional military boarding schools have been closing nationwide for decades. In the 2026-27 school year, St. John’s Northwestern was one of just 13 military boarding schools operating in the United States, according to Boarding School Review, and St. John’s Northwestern has been weathering its own enrollment challenges, said Eric Sanchez , executive vice president at St. John’s Northwestern. - Advertisement - While the school still offers its cadet leadership program and Junior ROTC, its academic and extracurricular offerings have expanded considerably in recent years. Sanchez says the changes are intended to appeal to a wider range of students and families in an increasingly competitive private education market. “We’ve been known as this military school for so many years, this place of structure and longstanding military tradition, and, while we embrace our past, we’ve become much more than that,” Sanchez said. “… Today, we are more than a traditional military school, we are an evolving institution that builds upon its rich history while creating new opportunities for the next generation of students.” STEM opportunities lead St. John’s transformation On the St. John’s campus just outside downtown Delafield, the expanded aeronautics lab opened in October. - Advertisement - The lab’s six flight simulators replicate Cessna 172 aircraft and allow students to practice flying in a controlled environment. Students can also take courses in ground school and air traffic control, design aircraft components through engineering and computer-aided design instruction and test their designs using an air tunnel. Through a partnership with Wisconsin Aviation, students interested in pursuing a private pilot’s license can receive flight instruction during the academic day rather than having to arrange lessons outside school hours. The school also works with EAA Chapter 320 and Wisconsin Civil Air Patrol for further opportunities for students interested in aviation. Gardetto said the goal is not necessarily to produce more pilots, but to expose students to the range of careers that exist within aviation and aerospace, while developing skills that could be useful elsewhere and allowing students to explore their interests. “Just as not every medical career leads to becoming a doctor, not every aeronautics pathway leads to being a pilot,” he said. “I think that a failure of a college prep program is a young person showing up to college trying to find themselves. If our programs are successful when (a student) starts college, they’ve already found what they want to do.” Inside St. John's Northwestern's new aeronautics lab 1 of 3 Within its STEM programs, the school is also developing opportunities for students to explore drone technology, including a project involving underwater surveillance of a Cessna 210 aircraft submerged in a Lake Country quarry. The project, which involves a partnership with Oconomowoc tech firm Terra Vigilis , is intended to show students how drone technology can be applied in commercial and industrial settings. Other STEM projects include growing lettuce from seeds that spent 14 days aboard the International Space Station and designing experiments for potential flights aboard a NASA high-altitude balloon. The opportunities Gardetto is helping create for today’s students reflect the kind of experience he said he found at St. John’s Northwestern more than four decades ago. “I arrived at St. John’s a short, skinny kid with glasses, and I left a tall, skinny kid with confidence,” Gardetto said. “St. John’s put me on the path to mastering my dream.” After retiring and moving back to the Milwaukee area, Gardetto said he wanted to find a way to give back to the school. The opportunity came about two and a half years ago when he learned administrators wanted to develop the school’s existing aviation club into a more substantial academic program. He donated the first flight simulator, which he said is valued at about $38,000, and began volunteering hundreds of hours to develop the laboratory and program alongside another retired Air Force colonel. “When you think back to being a 14-year-old, they’re dreaming about being an astronaut, or a major league pitcher for the Brewers, or a singer,” Gardetto said. “Those are the dreams of 14-year-olds, and to really build out St. John’s Northwestern’s STEM program, that’s the hat I put on.” Beyond aviation, St. John’s expands its academic offerings While the aviation program and new aeronautics lab are recent additions, Sanchez said the school has also been diversifying its academic offerings in other areas to address declining enrollment. When the administration took over approximately three and a half years ago, St. John’s Northwestern had 132 students, Sanchez said. The school opened the 2026-27 academic year with 232 students, an increase of more than 70%. Sanchez attributes the growth in part to changes in the school’s academic approach and efforts to broaden the range of experiences available to students. St. John’s Northwestern now offers 14 Advanced Placement courses and an AP Capstone program, which were not offered four years ago. The school has also expanded its dual-enrollment program opportunities for students to earn college credit before graduating. Other changes include expanded athletics and adding a 45-seat performing arts center on campus. In 2018, the school also became coed and currently has about 30 girls enrolled. Sanchez said the school wants to offer an environment where students can pursue different interests without having to choose between a rigorous college preparatory education and specialized programs. “When you look at education in general right now, if you’re not innovating and changing, you’re not improving your attraction to potential students and parents,” Sanchez said. “A lot of our change here is showing its results right now with our academics and our enrollment.” Sponsored Content The Secret Ingredient Helping Milwaukee Businesses... Could Your Employees Be the Next... How The Technical College’s Role Is... 100 Years Of Serving Wisconsin. Building... A practical starting point to explore... BizPeople Sherrice Harrell John Huggett Christine Brumfield