BUTLER TWP — Grove City College donated $500,000 to Butler County Community College to help fund construction of a building that will house its nursing program.

The donation, which BC3 President Nick Neupauer announced during Wednesday's board of trustees meeting, will go toward the $9 million match the school needs to obtain another $9 million from the state's Department of Education to build the Victor K. Phillips Nursing and Allied Health Building.

With the donation from Grove City College, BC3 has raised $6.2 million for the match. The school hopes to break ground for the Phillips building in May 2021 and open the building in fall 2022.

“This represents the fifth-largest gift in college history,” Neupauer told trustees.

The gift will be paid over a three-year period ending in 2021 and comes after the schools signed an agreement in September to send students in Grove City College's new nursing program to BC3 to pursue 41 credits in nine technical and clinical courses during their sophomore and junior years while they continue taking classes at Grove City. Grove City is starting its program next fall.

Neupauer said up to 22 Grove City College students will attend BC3. The students will pay tuition to Grove City, and BC3 will bill Grove City to cover its tuition, he said. They will begin taking classes at BC3 in 2021.

The schools have been discussing the nursing program for the past year after Grove City College approached BC3 about a possible collaboration, Neupauer said.

“Both institutions are committed to excellence, and the high quality of the BC3 program, and our students is an ideal match,” Paul J. McNulty, Grove City College president, said in a statement. He called BC3 a “natural partner.”

Nearly 93 percent of graduates in BC3's associate in applied science degree program in nursing in the past year passed the National Council Licensure Examination for registered nurses test, school officials said.

In addition to the gift from Grove City College, BC3 has received four $1 million donations since July 2014. Two of them, from Janice Phillips Larrick, for whom the building will be named, and from former state Sen. Tim Shaffer, are for construction of the nursing building.

In unrelated business, trustees approved pay raises of up to 3.25 percent for administrators and professional/technical employees based on performance reviews and created the position of armed campus security officer.Neupauer said the school has had an armed police department for more than 10 years, and the security officers will work under the direction of Scott Richardson, the director of campus police and security. Two security officers will be hired, he said.In addition, the trustees approved a four-year extension of a contract with Blackboard Inc., an education technology company based in Washington, D.C., for the school's learning management system. Blackboard's program is used to run the school's online programming. BC3 will pay Blackboard $65,920 for the current school year and 2020-21, and $67,898 for 2021-22 and 2022-23.Trustees also approved an agreement with Clarus Corp. of Alliance, Neb., to conduct an audit in an effort to help identify prospective students. The cost is $31,500 and travel expenses up to $3,000.Neupauer said the Butler County commissioners appointed Vicki Hinterberger to replace Bruce Mazzoni on the board, who resigned. Wednesday was his last day after serving more than 10 years and leading the finance committee.Mazzoni, a Cranberry Township supervisor who joined the board to help oversee finances, said the school is “running on all cylinders” and he no longer has a reason to remain on the board.“It's been an honor to be part of BC3,” Mazzoni said.Neupauer called him a “tremendous champion.”Hinterberger, owner and general manager of the Butler Radio Network, did not attended the meeting — nor did Nadine Tripodi, owner and CEO of Butler Technologies Inc., whom the commissioners appointed to replace the late Ray Steffler, who died in February after serving for 34 years including 20 years as chairman.