Danny Britton

Western Technology Center

On December 7, 1965, the U.S. Department of Defense announced the closing of Clinton-Sherman Air Force Base in Burns Flat, Oklahoma. In June of the next year, The State Department of Vocational and Technical Education completed a feasibility study to determine if a local district could form an area district around the former base. January 27, 1970, was the beginning of Western Technology Center when several school districts unanimously voted to become a part of the area district and the election of board members was held for Zones 1 through 5. In 1987, the new 350-seat seminar center and cafeteria were completed at the Burns Flat campus. In May of 1991, WTC purchased property in Weatherford along I-40 located on Historic Route 66. Renovations to an existing building were soon completed and classes began in 1992. August of 1995 construction was completed at the Sayre campus and both full-time and part-time classes began. In 2003, WTC opened a fourth campus in Hobart, The Kiowa County Adult Education Center. This campus offers an adult education and training facility, which annually hosts a number of group meetings in the Kiowa County area and offers patrons conference facilities. The next year WTC began renovating the east wing of the Weatherford campus to house a partnership program with the University of Oklahoma's School of Dental Hygiene, which opened in 2005. The state-of-art Dental Lab and high-tech classrooms include WTC's Dental Assisting program along with the WTC/OU Dental Hygiene baccalaureate program. In 2005, WTC became the home of the Oklahoma Space Industry Development Authority at Burns Flat. Teamwork between WTC, OSIDA, and NASA continues to develop fields of study in the aerospace industry. In 2009, the Burns Flat campus became home to a regional branch of the Oklahoma School of Science and Mathematics. WTC provides western Oklahoma with workforce training for adult and high school students along with customized training programs, exp...