(1) Boards of education of designated cities may establish or acquire by lawful conveyance municipal junior colleges for the purpose of promoting public education. A college in a designated city shall not constitute a municipal junior college or receive support as provided in KRS 165.220 to 165.240 unless it is controlled by the board of education of the city as a part of the public school system, and unless its principal work is the maintenance of courses affording instruction in such arts, sciences and professions and conferring such certificates of attainment as are authorized by other similar institutions of learning above high school grade.
(2) As used in this section, "designated city" means a city classified as a city of the second class as of January 1, 2014, under the city classification system in effect prior to January 1, 2015. The Department of Education shall, on or before January 1, 2015, create an official registry listing the cities that qualify as a "designated city" under this section and shall publish that registry on its Web site.