Northern Oconto County towns want to join Nicolet tech college district

NWTC programs up north have been eliminated, they say
By: 
NEW Media Staff

Six towns in northern Oconto County are seeking the county board’s help in detaching from the Northeast Wisconsin Technical College (NWTC) School District.

The towns — Breed, Doty, Lakewood, Mountain, Riverview and Townsend — feel a more natural connection to Nicolet Area Technical College, which has an outreach center as close as Carter, just five miles from Townsend.

But the Wisconsin Technical College District Board denied their requests, according to a letter to county officials from Wayne O’Barski, chair of the Northern Oconto County Technical College Committee.

NWTC is based in Green Bay and serves all or part of nine counties, with a Regional Learning Center in Oconto Falls. Rhinelander-based Nicolet College serves Forest, Oneida, Vilas and parts of Langlade, Lincoln and Iron counties.

The Oconto County Board’s Finance/Insurance Committee on April 12 recommended that the board support the towns’ appeal efforts.

Among other reasons, the towns want to detach from NWTC because of a perceived decrease in community service and outreach programs; an increase in taxpayer cost with specific add-on fees to course costs; elimination of outreach programs, including those for senior citizens; and the drive of 40-plus miles to take required public safety courses that are only offered at the Green Bay campus or Regional Learning Centers.

“Northern Oconto County is in closer proximity in most areas to Nicolet College than to NWTC,” O’Barski said in his letter to the county. The six municipalities asked supervisors to petition the state to allow them to join the Nicolet district.

The state board denied the request in part because residents can attend any college they wish without redistricting, and because no one from the public commented when a public hearing was held in Madison, O’Barski said.

The county board is scheduled to consider the resolution supporting the towns’ request when it meets Thursday morning, April 22.