WARREN — The board of directors for the Rural Regional College of Northern Pennsylvania announced Thursday it has selected Warren to be the site of the RRC’s Administrative Center.

The Administrative Center will be just one of many locations for the RRC, and will house the school’s administrative offices. Classrooms, computer labs, teleconferencing and other technical lab spaces may be added in the future.

The center will initially be located at Jefferson House, then move to permanent facilities at the former South Street School when renovations there are completed in early 2018. The RRC will share the facility with the Warren-Forest Higher Education Council.

With plans to enroll its first students for fall 2017 classes, the RRC’s mission is to provide affordable, accessible, career-focused technical and associate’s degree programs for residents of nine northwestern Pennsylvania counties (Cameron, Crawford, Elk, Erie, Forest, McKean, Potter, Venango and Warren).

Rather than being organized around a “main campus,” the RRC’s unique delivery model will include a strong network of community-based College Centers and Satellite Delivery Sites housed in existing facilities across all nine counties in the region, in addition to the Administrative Center in Warren.

In addition to selecting the Warren site for the Administrative Center, the selection committee recommended continuing discussions with the business community for two additional locations in St. Marys and Titusville to support technical education. Discussion also will continue with the University of Pittsburgh at Titusville to explore shared services.

“The selection of an Administrative Center is an important step forward for the RRC, and for our community,” said Duane Vicini, the RRC Project Executive. “ The RRC is happening because business, government, educators and the community are working together. We’re building a unique system to ensure local residents have access to the education and training they need to build well-paying careers, and to ensure local businesses have the skilled talent pool they need to grow our economy.”

Development of the RRC began in 2012 with the creation of a pilot program, the Education Consortium of the Upper Allegheny, to fill the educational and training void resulting from the lack of community colleges in the region. The RRC will replace ECUA as early as fall 2017, once certifications are received from the Pennsylvania Department of Education.