Community College of Allegheny County's plan to lease individual classrooms in Bethel Park could become a model enabling CCAC to reach various locations without opening its own facility, President Stewart Sutin said yesterday.

Speaking after a CCAC trustees meeting, Dr. Sutin said the arrangement involving Independence Middle School should save the college money because it will pay per room, as needed, without maintaining or staffing a facility around the clock.

The existing Bethel Park Center, in the former Logan School, where its lease will end in August, costs CCAC $33,000 yearly. The college terminated credit courses there in June, citing among other problems the costs associated with the aging building.

"Everybody wins. We continue to offer credit and noncredit education for the residents of Bethel Park, but yet it will be much more cost-effective," Dr. Sutin said of the Independence School plan.

During the board meeting, he remarked, "We're very, very pleased."

He said CCAC ought to be open to similar arrangements with other public or private K-12 schools, as needed. It would help the college react more nimbly to changing demand for instruction.

CCAC wants to offer credit and noncredit courses at Independence starting in September; it would use about a dozen classrooms. A lease will be formulated in light of the Bethel Park school board's vote Wednesday night approving the arrangement.

"We're going to work with our faculty to identify the types of courses, credit and noncredit, that we will be offering and we will post them in our [course] catalog as we approach the fall semester," Dr. Sutin said.

Allegheny County Councilman Vince Gastgeb, R-Bethel Park, has said the Bethel Park Center serves more than 1,000 people. The college did not have a figure for its noncredit enrollment but said last year there were more than 500 full-time credit students.