The Warren County R-III and Wright City R-II school boards are taking action to change the map of community college service areas.The school boards voted in late March and early April to begin the process of joining the St. Charles Community College (SCC) extended service area. The move is a preliminary step toward eventually bringing a technical college to Warren County.A community college’s extended service area is the broad region where a college offers programs for supplemental education or job training. That’s different than being part of a college’s taxing district, where residents pay property taxes to a college and receive discounts on tuition.All of Warren County is currently within the extended service area of East Central College, which is based in Franklin County. Only the residents within the boundary of the Washington School District are part of East Central’s taxing district.Switching to have extended service coverage from SCC instead of East Central requires the OK from the Missouri Community College Association (MCCA), and that change would only apply to the Warren County and Wright City school districts.The service area boundaries were established by MCCA in the 1990s as a mutual agreement between the state’s 12 community college systems, said association President and CEO Brian Millner. Since then the boundaries haven’t changed, but Millner said the association isn’t opposed to changes.“All of the Missouri community colleges strongly support providing affordable and acceptable higher education to all Missouri students,” Millner commented. “If this change serves those citizens, then the MCCA and the community colleges involved are going to be fully supportive of that process.”No time line has been laid out for when the school districts can officially say that they are part of the SCC extended service area. It will be even longer before the districts can achieve their final goal of bringing a technical school to Warren County.In the immediate future, Wright City Superintendent Dr. David Buck said students won’t notice a difference even after the service area changes. He said the St. Charles college will be more capable of bringing job readiness training, such as welding classes, because of the school’s larger size and existing enrollment.Tuition to enroll at either SCC or East Central won’t change based on service area.Tech collegeAdvocates hope to eventually establish a technical college in Warren County under the umbrella of an existing community college system.Buck said it makes sense for that college to be SCC, because half of Wright City students who go to college already go to SCC.“We have very few go to (East Central),” Buck said. “We’ve had a partnership with SCC for a while.”Bringing a technical school to Warren County would likely mean joining the college taxing district, which would require a vote of the people within the Warren County and Wright City school districts.SCC’s property tax rate is significantly lower than East Central’s. The SCC tax rate is 21.16 cents per $100 of assessed valuation, while East Central’s is 45.41 cents per $100.The group making recommendations for which college to work with and discussing how to start a campus here is the Warren County Technical Institute Exploratory Committee.The exploratory committee is a group of local residents, business owners and community leaders who have been evaluating educational needs in the area. Members say a technical college is needed because local businesses are facing an ever widening skills gap, and struggle to find employees with essential training and experience.SCC itself hasn’t spoken much on the issues of service areas or a technical college in Warren County. Communications Manager Brynne Cramer said the college wants to be respectful of MCCA’s process.“We don’t want to make too many plans until MCCA can complete their role,” Cramer said. “We’re excited to extend access to higher education however we can.”School news