Lehigh Carbon Community College will close its Carbon County site as more students choose to study online and at other campuses.

The community college recently informed Jim Thorpe Area School District that it won’t be renewing its lease for space inside the Jim Thorpe Area High School. But Dr. Ann Bieber, the college’s president, said serving students from Carbon County remains a high priority.

“Carbon is as important to us as it was the day we were formed. We will do everything we can to serve our students in Carbon County,” Bieber said.

The coronavirus has accelerated the trend of community college students taking courses online. Even before the pandemic, more than a quarter of the 528-plus LCCC students from Carbon took their courses online.

At the same time, they are taking fewer taking courses at the Jim Thorpe site. Just 5% of them studied there in the last semester before the pandemic. Years ago, Bieber said, it was one-third.

The Schnecksville Campus is still the most popular brick-and-mortar location for students from Carbon County. Bieber said LCCC tried different ideas to boost enrollment at the Jim Thorpe Campus. They held classes in conjunction with Carbon Career & Technical Institute, and synchronous learning where students could remotely connect to classes taking place in Schnecksville.

“We tried a lot of different things, but the world is changing. We’re trying to figure out: what is the format, what are the programs, where is the need?” Bieber said.

LCCC has had a Jim Thorpe site since 2014. Before that, it had a site in Nesquehoning.

LCCC’s lease with Jim Thorpe will terminate at the end of December. The two schools approved a month-to-month lease in July.

In the 2019-20 school year, LCCC paid the district about $195,000 to lease the space inside the school.

Jim Thorpe Superintendent John Rushefski said it’s a small financial loss for the district, but the district recently started another lease with Carbon County for space inside the district offices.

Jim Thorpe doesn’t have any definite plans to use LCCC’s vacated space at the moment.

Bieber said that LCCC will continue to look at every possibility to serve its Carbon County students.

The four sponsoring districts in Carbon County combined provide about $800,000 in funding to LCCC each year. In exchange, students from those districts pay only 50 percent of tuition.

LCCC administers the Project SHINE afterschool program, and offers dual enrollment to high school students. Rushefski said that program has been a great benefit for Jim Thorpe.

“That partnership is alive and well. But in 21st century learning, having that brick-and-mortar education is not as critical as it once was,” he said.

Bieber said the college will look at starting a committee to consider resuming in-person classes in Carbon County. But it would likely be on a smaller scale, and only if there is enough demand for classes.

Bieber said it’s clear that remote learning will continue to grow, as more students become used to it in their high schools, and adult learners juggle jobs and education.

“Carbon is in our name. Carbon is very important to Lehigh Carbon Community College. We serve all our students, from all our sending districts, in a variety of ways,” she said.