TTCS may expand to Franklin County

"We're in the planning stage," said Jones.

Jones said TTCS was approached by business and community leaders from Franklin County about offering evening classes at the high school, and the school has been in conversations with that county's school board about use of the facility.

Jones said that there is a waiting list for some of TTCS's programs at its home campus on Madison Street, and offering some nursing and auto technology classes in Winchester would allow displaced workers and other students there to begin training sooner for new careers.

But TTCS has no money in its own budget for such a satellite program. So Franklin County leaders are talking to Tennessee Department of Labor and Workforce Development to see if money can be made available.

Jones said there's no set timetable for putting such a program in place. He said it is too late to get such a program started with the new TTCS term in January, and the next season of classes does not begin until May.

Tennessee Technology Centers statewide are operated under the auspices of the Tennessee Board of Regents, which also operates community colleges and state universities other than the University of Tennessee system. Middle Tennessee Education Center, which began operations this fall in Shelbyville, is a joint venture satellite campus of two other Board of Regents schools: Motlow State Community College and Middle Tennessee State University.