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Community Corner

Ranken College Board Approves Wentzville Partnership

The technical college will open a satellite campus in Wentzville sometime next year.

A Ranken Technical College in Wentzville is one step closer to becoming a reality.

On Monday morning, at Wentzville's city hall, Ranken President Stan Shoun gave Mayor Nick Guccione a red folder containing Ranken’s board of trustees’ Memorandum of Understanding, which is an agreement on the concept of the college.

The Wentzville board of aldermen approved the partnership in January. As part of the plan, Ranken will build a satellite campus on a 6,000 to 8,000 facility that is yet to be determined.

Shoun said that on May 16, the Ranken board of trustees unanimously approved the plan.

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The city of Wentzville will foot the initial bill. First, the college will enter into a three year lease, in which the city would pay the college’s first three years of rent, which will total $240,000. The city will also pay for the staffing of the college—a $120,000 bill over the course of the three-year lease.

Mayor Guccione said he was at first apprehensive about the cost of having the college in Wentzville, but said all the expenditures will be offset by non-profit and corporate sponsors

“We are going to get all that money back,” Guccione said. “It’s a seed money to get them started.”

Ranken offers technical training in automotive, construction, electrical, information technology and machining, among other programs. Guccione said the campus will create a much-needed generation of skilled workers.

“I think it will bring up a new generation of people to this city,” Guccione said of Ranken, which currently has a campus in the Central West End. “Economically is going to be a driving engine for the community.”

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