BUTLER TWP — Butler County Community College administrators must decide by June 30 whether to officially discuss a merger with Community College of Beaver County.

BC3 President Nick Neupauer said Wednesday that he spoke with members of the college’s finance and executive committees recently about the topic, and that the pending retirement of CCBC’s president, announced last week, will have “absolutely no impact” on the merger decision.

“We just wanted to hear a little bit more about what the (BC3) board has in mind. We have a follow-up meeting with finance and executive committees coming up next week,” he said.

“We must decide by the end of this month if we are going to enter into formal discussions about a merger. CCBC put forward that deadline.”

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

Forrester announced last week he will retire on June 30, 2014, after 15 years as CCBC president.

“I don’t believe (my retirement) will affect merger talks at all. It’s something that my board and I discussed. This is something that is beyond my presidency. This is going to be a lengthy process, assuming we even engage in discussions,” Forrester said.

Neupauer said a merger is “more of a macro decision: ‘Does it make sense to join forces between the two colleges?’”

He reiterated that, even if formal discussion occurs and leads to a merger agreement, the process would take several years.

“Governance would probably be the biggest (issue),” Neupauer said.

Both colleges have local sponsors, Butler County and Beaver County, respectively, as well as individual boards of trustees.

CCBC has 2,251 full- and part-time students taking credits this semester. That college’s trustees, in April, 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.