Metropolitan Community College (Missouri)


Metropolitan Community College is a public community college system in the U.S. state of Missouri. The system consists of five separate campuses in Kansas City, Independence, and Lee's Summit. The campuses had a total enrollment of 15,770 in 2019.

History

MCC is the oldest public college in greater Kansas City, having been established in 1915 as Kansas City Polytechnic Institute with its campus at 11th Street and Locust initially offering a junior college, a teacher training school, a high school, a mechanic arts school, a trade school, and a business training school. The school website says it was one of the first schools in the country to issue a two-year associate degree it was the third school in the country to be accredited by the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools in 1918. It changed its name to Junior College of Kansas City in 1919.
In 1964 the suburban schools of Belton, Center, Grandview, Hickman Mills, Lee's Summit, North Kansas City and Raytown joined the Kansas City school district to form the Metropolitan Community College District and took over management of the school from the Kansas City School District to form the College Board of Trustees. The Blue Springs, Park Hill, Independence and Fort Osage school districts joined the network in the 1980s and 1990s.
The Longview, Maple Woods, and Penn Valley campuses were formed in 1969. The Blue River campus opened in 1997 and the Business & Technology campus opened in 2002 with entire institution formally being called Metropolitan Community College in 2005.

Campuses

Prior to the consolidation of the Metropolitan name the campuses had their own local name.