{"id":95930,"date":"2026-02-20T13:48:11","date_gmt":"2026-02-20T16:48:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/automotive.einnews.com\/article\/894103821"},"modified":"2026-02-20T13:48:11","modified_gmt":"2026-02-20T16:48:11","slug":"wncc-to-end-automotive-collision-repair-program","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/2026\/02\/20\/wncc-to-end-automotive-collision-repair-program\/","title":{"rendered":"WNCC To End Automotive Collision Repair Program"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Instruction in the Trades at Western Nebraska Community College will shrink following a special meeting this week of the WCCA Board of Governors.<\/p>\n

On Wednesday, the Board approved ending the institution\u2019s Automotive Collision Repair program due in part to a long-running decline in student enrollment, and to approve a Reduction in Force involving the program instructor.<\/p>\n

2008 program graduate Creighton Grant was among those speaking in favor of keeping the program at least another two years to try to turn around student interest in the field.<\/p>\n

Grant said it gave him the skills determining where he is today as an owner of four automotive-related businesses.<\/p>\n

Sarah Stillahn, a member of the program\u2019s Advisory Board, lobbied for the school to keep the program to see if interest could be boosted during another two years.<\/p>\n

Stillahn noted her company, Bumper to Bumper Body & Paint, has hired program graduates in the past, whose skills can transfer over to other industries as well.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s been more than a decade since the institution made a similar move, when in 2015 WNCC decided to close down instruction in cosmetology.<\/p>\n

The Governors ultimately voted 7 to 1 in favor of taking the necessary steps to close down the program at the end of the current school year.<\/p>\n

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… approved ending the institution\u00e2\u0080\u0099s Automotive<\/span> Collision Repair program due in … as an owner of four automotive<\/span>-related businesses. Sarah Stillahn, a …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-95930","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","wpcat-1-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95930","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=95930"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95930\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=95930"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=95930"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=95930"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}