St. Bonaventure University is officially coming to Warren County.

University officials and the Warren County School District have received word from the Pennsylvania Department of Education (PDE) that the state has approved St. Bonaventure as a provider of dual enrollment services for local high school students.

The university's facilities will be located in the Pine Grove Ambulatory building in Russell. Warren County School District students will be able to earn up to 59 college credits for a fraction of the normal cost of attending St. Bonaventure.

"We think this is such a big thing for Warren County," said John Papalia, CEO of Warren General Hospital and a member of the dual enrollment project board. "It's just such a unique opportunity for our community."

The state's approval of the project was the culmination of four years of work to place a St. Bonaventure collegiate presence in the county.

According to Papalia, the state gave the project a green light on Aug. 5, but the application submitted by St. Bonaventure needed five signatures from PDE before the approval was made official.

The university will begin offering classes in Warren at a temporary site at Holy Redeemer Center in Warren for the fall semester. Project board members expect construction on the facility in Pine Grove to be completed by December.

The Pine Grove facility will include four classrooms, two labs, break rooms and office space for administration and faculty.

"This is an incredibly satisfying moment," said Bob Crowley, a member of the project's board of directors. "It was incredibly frustrating at times, so the satisfaction level now is extremely high."

The partnership with St. Bonaventure will provide high school juniors and seniors with the opportunity to take college-level courses for credit at both the university and the school district. One credit hour will cost a student $165.

A typical credit hour at St. Bonaventure costs a college student $746. The university has agreed to offer a 50 percent scholarship. Contributions by the Warren Community Foundation and school district slashed the price even further, making the cost for 59 credit hours less than $10,000.

Fifty-nine credit hours would leave a student graduating from the school district one credit shy of entering college as a junior.

Crowley noted that the credit hours are transferable to other universities.

Crowley and Papalia praised the efforts of Jim Decker, CEO and president of the Warren County Chamber of Business and Industry, for his help moving the project forward along with officials in the school district, and the efforts of WCCBI board chairman John Hanna. They also noted the Community Foundation donated $100,000 for classroom buildup and $50,000 in scholarships. They also thanked the efforts of their fellow project board members: Steve Rothenberg, Kim Angove, Duane Vicini, Mark Donick and Kevin Mead.

The St. Bonaventure fall semester for the district is scheduled to begin on Sept. 1. Enrollment is still open, Crowley said, but will close "very soon."