Bluegrass Community & Technical College Opens a Winchester-Clark County Campus
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May 6, 2008, will be remembered as an important date in the county’s history.
That was opening day for the new $5.9 million Bluegrass Community & Technical College, Winchester-Clark County Campus.
The 24,000-square-foot campus in the Winchester-Clark County Industrial Park replaces a 4,000-square-foot campus at College Park Library.
“During the fall 2007 semester, we had 504 students attending classes in that cramped, 4,000-square-foot building, and we had been limited to what courses we could offer there because of space limitations,” says JoEllen Reed, community liaison for Bluegrass Community & Technical College. “We now expect to have 600 to 650 students on the new campus during the first year‚ and enrollment is anticipated to grow to 1‚500 students in about five years.”
The new, two-story building includes nine classrooms, computer lab, biology/chemistry lab, child-development center‚ student lounge and wireless computer access.
“The new building sits on 20.38 acres that the Winchester-Clark County Industrial Development Authority was kind enough to donate to the college,” Reed says. “Now, students will be able to earn two-year associate’s degrees in liberal arts and applied science, but technical courses won’t come to the Winchester campus until we construct more buildings. It is part of our master plan that will eventually implement a second and third phase of construction.”
Bluegrass Community & Technical College is based in Lexington and has five campuses in central Kentucky.
“Winchester-Clark County is the only campus with both the city and county names in its title,” Reed says. “It is named that way because the city and county like to show how much they cooperate with each other.”
Story by Kevin Litwin
Photo by Todd Bennett
