In the spring of 1998, a proposal was made by a former Bellefonte Area School District superintendent to shut down the Centre County Vocational-Technical School.

There was even a buyer on board to purchase the facility, now called the Central Pennsylvania Institute of Science and Technology, said Hank Yeagley, who serves on the CPI operations committee.

Almost 20 years later, CPI still focuses on career technical education, and an announcement Friday morning stated that the school will roll out a two-year associate in specialized technology degree path in September with four programs — advanced manufacturing, health care management, heavy diesel construction with a case emphasis and natural gas compression.

“I came on this board in December 1997 and started to think about when we first started discussing the possibility of becoming a degree-granting institution, and in the spring of 1998 there were three of us on the committee,” said Yeagley, who is also a Penns Valley Area school board member. “We sat down at Schnitzels (Tavern) in Bellefonte and this school at the time was in a shaky situation. … We said, ‘Are we going to close this school? Or are we going to make something worthwhile out of it?’ Maintaining the status quo wasn’t going to work and we believed this school had great potential for career technical education for the (residents) of Pennsylvania.”

In that meeting, they created a list of 18 strategic initiatives — all but one have been accomplished: to establish an alumni association.

No. 14 on the list said, “To explore the possibility of establishing tuition-based post-graduate certificate and associate degree programs.”

That was recently made into a reality.

“Everyone has really bought into this effort and it’s for the right reasons — to help students and it’s to help our employers,” Vice President of Postsecondary Education Todd Taylor said. “I know we all believe that and that’s why we’re here. I think that’s why we have the support and that’s why we’ve grown, and I think the faculty, staff, administration, our partners in the industry, the community, legislatures all have the same mission, which is we love this area, we love this region. Let’s make it a better place, (and) let’s put people to work and help our employers so they can grow and expand.”

Taylor said there is an enrollment cap on the programs, a maximum of 16 to 20 students depending on the program.