BROCKWAY, Jefferson County — Butler County Community College will open BC3 @ Brockway in August in the former Owens-Illinois Glass building. The announcement was made Monday morning by college officials.

“BC3 @ Brockway is the region’s only community college and we are glad to be here. Now area residents can go to college, earn an associate degree close-to-home and at an affordable cost,” said Nicholas Neupauer, BC3 president, in a news release.

About 100 people attended the announcement ceremony in Brockway, including educators from high schools, colleges and universities in the region and elected officials.

The new BC3 @ Brockway location will be funded by a $500,000 annual grant from the state Department of Education. It will serve students in Clarion, Clearfield, Elk and Jefferson counties.

Construction on the building will begin Monday and continue through the summer. Fall classes will start on Aug. 26, according to the news release.

The 14,000-square-foot facility will include classrooms, a biology, anatomy and geology lab, a conference room, a student lounge and an outdoor patio.

BC3 @ Brockway will offer five associate degrees: business management, early childhood education, general studies, psychology and social work. Face-to-face, online and hybrid courses will be offered both full and part-time.

BC3 has operated in the Brockway area for more than two years, initially expanding to offer classes there, mostly through online programs, due to a grant from the Education Consortium of the Upper Allegheny.

Those classes had been known as BC3 @ Upper Allegheny, but they didn’t have a building to call home.

BC3 students in Brockway have met with BC3 staff or do schoolwork at the Jefferson County-DuBois Vocational-Technical School.