Spotlight on Autauga & Elmore: Higher Education

Two colleges call Autauga and Elmore counties home, while a wealth of higher education institutions are in nearby Montgomery.

Central Alabama Community College President Jeff Lynn (center) with Prattville Mayor Bill Gillespie.

Autauga and Elmore counties are located next door to several two-year and four-year colleges and universities in Montgomery County, including Huntingdon College, Alabama State University, Faulkner University, Troy University-Montgomery, Auburn University at Montgomery and Trenholm State Technical College.

Community and technical college options are available within the counties.

Central Alabama Community College — Prattville

CACC is based in Alexander City with a campus in Childersburg and a center in Talladega. It has been active in Elmore County for many years.

In November, CACC announced it officially gained approval from the Alabama Community College System to purchase its new, larger campus location in Prattville. The school had been offering dual enrollment and workforce/academic services in a shopping center.

The school purchased the former East Memorial Baptist Church in Prattville, a 124-acre site with a 50,000-square-foot facility. This gives CACC a permanent home in Autauga County and provides the opportunity to expand programs and course offerings.

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“We are beyond excited about our new location at East Memorial,” says Jeff Lynn, CACC president. “There has been a significant amount of work by a lot of people, from the state and local levels, to get to this point.”

The city of Prattville and Autauga County are providing a total of $4 million to CACC for the purchase of the property. The city is also providing a percentage of its 1-cent education sales tax revenue annually for five years and the county is providing a percentage of its internet sales tax revenue annually.

Ingram State Technical College

J.F. Ingram State Technical College in Elmore County offers postsecondary career and technical education to incarcerated adults and juveniles sentenced as adults. The goal is to help them successfully return to their families and communities, as well as the workforce.

Ingram, established in 1965, is a two-year institution and a member of the Alabama Community College System. It is accredited by the Council on Occupational Education.

Ingram has three campuses in Elmore County — the main campus in Deatsville, Draper Instructional Service Center in Elmore and Tutwiler Instructional Service Center in Wetumpka. It also offers adult education programs in several Alabama Department of Corrections institutions statewide, as well as the Alabama Therapeutic Education Facility in Columbiana in Shelby County.

Ingram also operates the LifeTech facility in Thomasville and delivers programs at Bibb Correctional Facility in Brent.

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