KCTCS gets $90 million to fund building projects for 3 colleges

Published on Apr 8, 2025

The Kentucky Community and Technical College System will receive $90 million to fund three building projects following passage of House Joint Resolution 34 by the Kentucky General Assembly and Gov. Andy Beshear’s signing of the resolution this session. The projects will modernize and accelerate the work to provide education, training and workforce development for essential Kentucky industries.

The college system identified the projects as priorities during the self-study required by Senate Joint Resolution 179. The funds were originally appropriated in House Bill 6 in the 2024 session.

The release of funds was contingent on the system's work to develop a set of recommendations designed to improve and advance the community college system to better align to Kentucky’s needs. The report, which represented 7,000 staff hours across five work teams, was delivered to lawmakers in December.

“I appreciate the efforts put forward by the Kentucky Community and Technical College System to identify projects that will provide the most benefit to Kentuckians and look forward to seeing the impact these facilities will have in the system’s mission,” said House A&R Committee Chairman Jason Petrie.

“Without a doubt, we rely on KCTCS to prepare a skilled workforce that ultimately serves as the backbone of our state’s economy. It is important to note that the legislature was able to make these allocations because of the responsible approach to budgeting that prioritizes needs and strategic investments,” Petrie added.

“Through higher education, Kentuckians can achieve their goals and help build a better future for everyone in our commonwealth,” said Gov. Andy Beshear. “By making sure we have the best campuses and programs, means our students can chase their dreams, no matter how big, right here at home.” 

KCTCS President Ryan Quarles thanked the legislators and Gov. Beshear.

“We extend our sincere thanks to our legislators and Gov. Beshear for their continued support of our mission to align robust academic and technical programming to the workforce and career needs of our students,” said Quarles.

“SJR 179 challenged us to improve and expand our programming, and these modernized facilities will support that effort while significantly improving the learning environment and success of our students. We are very grateful for this opportunity to better serve our students, employers and the state’s growing economy,” he added.

The funding supports capital projects as detailed below.

Somerset Community College
Plans include consolidating Laurel North and South campuses since they are in close proximity in London by building an advanced technical building at the Laurel North Campus. The new building will provide modern classrooms and workshops for program expansion for automotive mechanics, industrial technology, construction technology and other high-wage, high-demand jobs. The system will surplus the Laurel South campus.

Jefferson Community and Technical College
This project is the second phase in the replacement of Hartford Hall at the downtown Jefferson campus. The building has served its useful life and is no longer compliant with building codes and cannot offer modern science instruction. The new facility will provide accessible, safe labs for science classes, and allied health and nursing programs.

Southcentral Kentucky Community and Technical College
The funds will be used for the Phase I construction of a new consolidated campus in Glasgow to respond to the high demand in the allied health career field. It will replace a severely outdated health campus housed in the old tuberculosis hospital dormitory buildings and a triple-wide trailer.

The need for this replacement campus comes from the demographic changes to this area of the state with the new electric vehicle battery plants in Glendale and Bowling Green.

The SJR 179 report identified several recommendations to modernize and accelerate KCTCS’ statewide work to provide education, training and workforce development for essential Kentucky industries. The three capital projects are the first in a series of new investments and priorities to position the system as Kentucky’s first point of entry for postsecondary education and as the leading workforce provider.

More information on SJR 179 is available on the KCTCS website.