Two community colleges won’t consider merging soon. At least, board members won’t be talking about it yet.

Butler County Community College board members at their last meeting voted against having formal discussions about merging with the neighboring Community College of Beaver County.

Nick Neupauer, BC3 president, said he had many conversations about the idea with CCBC President Joe Forrester, after the Monaca-based school had sent a letter in April asking BC3 leaders to consider merging.

But after consideration, Neupauer said there were other initiatives that BC3 wants to focus on such as building projects on campus and focusing on three satellite facilities at Lawrence Crossing, Linden Point and Brockway, which is to open this fall.

“That could be something perhaps to consider down the road,” he said, referring to having formal discussions about a potential merger.

Representatives at CCBC hope to ignite formal discussions in the future.

“The intent of the resolution passed by our board of trustees was to simply raise the question with the trustees from BC3 to determine if there is interest in talking. We were anticipating further conversation as a way to consider the possibilities for both of our institutions,” said Leslie Tennant, a CCBC spokesman, in a prepared statement.

In spring 2012, CCBC had more than 3,100 credit-seeking students. Last school year, there were about 2,700 credit-seeking students at the BC3 main campus, 700 at its Lawrence Crossing facility and 350 at the Linden Point facility.

BC3 has an operating budget of about $27 million while Beaver Community has an operating budget of about $25 million.