NORTHAMPTON, Pa. – The Northampton Area School District Board of Directors held a special meeting Monday night to discuss financing for its new elementary school project.
At its previous meeting on Oct. 14, the school board voted to keep Moore Elementary School, located at 2835 Mountain View Drive in Bath, open while also constructing a new elementary school, dubbed East Allen Elementary School.
The completion of the new building is scheduled for next summer, with plans to open in the 2026-27 school year.
The vote to keep Moore Elementary School open was controversial, as the original budget plan for East Allen Elementary School factored in savings that would come from closing Moore Elementary.
About $990,000 in savings from closing Moore would have gone towards the East Allen Elementary School construction, which is estimated to cost $75.9 million.
The new school project consists of a school building and a new education center to be constructed on 90 acres of district-owned land on Route 329 and Seemsville Road in East Allen Township.
School board directors voted at the Oct. 14 meeting against authorizing a general obligation bond of up to $35.2 million to construct the new East Allen Elementary and education center, also known as the Route 329 project.
This trend of voting continued at Monday night's meeting, where a resolution to issue bonds for the new elementary school and education center was denied once again.
The resolution would have given the green light for the school district to borrow up to $37.2 million through a bond sale to finance the second phase of the Route 329 project.
"As we originally planned for, there was three rounds of borrowing in order to pay for the facility that's being built, and this motion tonight is asking the board for approval for the second phase of that funding," said NASD Business Administrator Craig Neiman.
School directors Kim Bretzik, Joshua Harris, Nathan Lichtenwalner, Brian McCulloch and Kristin Soldridge, the board vice president, voted against the bond. Directors Michael Baird, John Becker, Ross Makary and board President Doug Vaughn voted in favor.
Board director Kim Bretzik said she would not vote "yes" on the bond until a full discussion was had.
"We had some requests that were not fulfilled," Bretzik said. "We were clear that we wanted these requests to be fulfilled before we gave the approval for this."
The request is to update the indirect savings and cost of the Route 329 project, as Moore Elementary School will remain open.
"To clarify, this necessitates the removal of indirect savings from the closing of Moore Elementary School and adds applicable staffing and operational costs to 329," Bretzik said.
Several public commenters expressed their disdain for the failure to approve of the bonds for the project, emphasizing the need for new educational facilities.
"I encourage the board to honor their commitment and the legal contract that they have signed with local businesses, and to go forward with the bonds as planned," said a Moore Township resident.
The construction of East Allen Elementary School is already underway. The school is slated to be open by the 2026-27 school year.