Central Wyoming College opens its Jackson campus, governor excited to watch it grow
JACKSON (WNE) — Central Wyoming College students, staff and faculty were welcomed home Thursday afternoon.
Roughly 200 people gathered outside the freshly-minted campus on High School Road to celebrate its opening. After operating for five decades in the Tetons, Central Wyoming College Jackson has gained a permanent learning space.
The process was 15 years in the making, with lawmakers and local electeds, higher education advocates, community donors and Central Wyoming College officials chipping in to make the campus in the northwestern corner of the state a reality.
Teton County voters were acknowledged during the ribbon-cutting for their support of the project. In 2017, a Specific Purpose Excise Tax measure for roughly $3.8 million to purchase the 2-acre parcel and begin design and engineering plans was approved by voters. Five years later, voters approved another $10 million for construction.
The college secured more than $12.4 million in federal funding from the American Rescue Plan Act, which Teton County lawmakers advocated for the state to budget for the project. It was also backed by philanthropy to get to the finish line.
The 20,300-square-foot community college building includes classrooms, offices, a commercial teaching kitchen for culinary and hospitality education, nursing simulation and clinical skill laboratories, a computer lab and more. The facility will double the capacity of CWC’s nursing program and triple its culinary program capacity, while officials said it will also create opportunities to expand health care education, skilled trades, workforce training and lifelong learning.
Gov. Mark Gordon, who attended the opening ceremony, told the Jackson Hole Daily he was impressed with the college’s medical learning resources, including theaters with hospital beds for nursing and certified nursing assistant students to get hands-on experience.
This story was published on Nov. 6, 2026.
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