BRTC satellite campus looking to expand opportunities for students

PIGGOTT, Ark. (KAIT) - Black River Technical College has been preparing since November to open its second satellite campus in Clay County.

The school dedicated the Armory at BRTC in Piggott to career and technical certification opportunities for students in Piggott, Corning, Rector, and surrounding communities.

Since then, staff has been working around the clock to make sure when classes start everything is in place because of how important it is going to be.

“Piggott was a school district that was not served by a career technical center it was too far for them to travel to Paragould and this will offer juniors and seniors the ability to get college training,” said Phillip Dickson, dean of Business and Technical Education at BRTC.

He explained it has been tricky trying to get everything they need in time.

“We are facing some supply chain issues that all industries are right now we got anywhere from four weeks to eight-week wait times, and we got some things that are taking three to six months to get here,” Dickson said.

He said the project would not be possible without the Department of Education and the Office of Skills Development.

Priscilla Stillwell, the director of operations at BRTC, said they are going to offer something special to the community.

“If we have a program set up and we have five or ten students from the public school that are in there and we still have five seats left over, and we can open up those to the public that would like to change their career path or students that graduated that didn’t have this opportunity,” she said.

The school is still expecting to have everything up and running in Piggott by August.

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