BUTLER TWP — Butler County Community College administrators will take the next month to consider whether to discuss a merger with Community College of Beaver County.

The CCBC trustees voted Tuesday to direct CCBC President Joe Forrester to “initiate conversations” with BC3 president Nick Neupauer and the BC3 trustees to gauge their interest in a merger.

On Wednesday, BC3 trustees took no action on the matter.

“From BC3’s perspective, there is one decision to be made: whether to discuss it at all and, if so, when. We’ll spend the next month evaluating if we will go forward (with discussions),” Neupauer said.

CCBC is “landlocked” with Westmoreland County Community College campuses collecting students to the south, Community College of Allegheny County to the east and BC3 attracting students from the north.

CCBC has 2,251 full- and part-time students taking credits this semester. That college’s trustees Tuesday approved a $21.5 million 2013-14 budget that included a 17 percent tuition increase, intended to fill a $900,000 gap between revenues and expenses. CCBC employs 245 academic staff.

BC3 has a $27 million budget for 2012-13, and 3,301 students enrolled in its spring semester. The college employs 309 academic staff.

“The question right now is simple: do we want to invest the time and energy to initiate these conversations?” Forrester said Wednesday. “We know that this is not a process that will move forward quickly.”

Forrester said he must report back any interest from BC3 to his trustees by June 30. He said that even if BC3 is interested in a merger, the process would take several years.

If the two colleges discuss the issue and want to move forward, Forrester said, the next step would be determining how to best engage the county commissioners and state legislators since there are a “lot of questions to be asked and answered at those levels.”

Both Forrester and Neupauer contacted staff at their respective colleges Wednesday to dissuade any panicked reactions to CCBC’s proposal.

Forrester said that when actions like a merger are brought up, staff concerns can include job or program elimination, but such issues are “very far off,” if talks even occur.