Northampton Area School Board delays vote on updating Moore Elementary

NORTHAMPTON, Pa. — Due to financial concerns, Northampton Area School Board has delayed a decision on whether the district will renovate or rebuild Moore Elementary School

School directors tabled a vote Monday on how the district will proceed with updating the school, which they decided in October to keep open.

The district will have five elementary schools, including a new $72.8 million school being built in East Allen Township.

School directors cited financial uncertainty for the decision to table the vote, saying it’s not yet clear how much money Northampton Area will have to contribute for a new satellite campus for the Bethlehem Area Vocational-Technical School.

Bethlehem Area School District recently bought a South Bethlehem building to serve as a satellite campus for the vo-tech in place of an expansion at the technical school’s Bethlehem Township main campus.

Bethlehem Area will sell or lease the building to BAVTS.

Bethlehem Area, Northampton Area and Saucon Valley school districts are part of the technical school.

BAVTS causes uncertainty

The three districts have not been able to agree on a new 30-year contract to govern their partnership at the technical school, specifically as it relates to the funding formula and voting structure.

The current agreement expires in June.

Bethlehem Area and Northampton Area have considered creating a new version of BAVTS without Saucon Valley if the three districts can't reach a resolution on their articles of agreement.

That would require Bethlehem Area and Northampton Area to buy out Saucon Valley.

The uncertainty makes it unclear how much money Northampton Area will have to contribute toward maintaining its position in BAVTS, said Board President Kristin Soldridge.

Soldridge was newly appointed to lead the board at a Monday reorganization meeting. Nathan Lichtenwalner was appointed board vice president.

Moore Elementary options

In addition to five partial renovation options previously discussed by the board, school directors are also considering two new options for the school, including a complete renovation and construction of a new school.

The partial renovation options range in cost from $15.5 million to $29 million.

A complete renovation would cost about $51 million. To demolish the current Moore Elementary building and build a new one would cost the district $70 million.

Soldridge said she will ask the board’s facilities committee to narrow the seven options to just three choices at its next meeting, 6 p.m. Dec. 16. in the Northampton Area High School library.

“We made the decision to keep Moore open,” board member Joshua Harris said. “Now it’s time to make a decision on what we’re doing with it moving forward.

“I think all of us are sick and tired of talking about this topic and probably everyone out there.”

Harris also said the district has no plan for how to afford the Moore update along with its other facilities' needs. He attributed that to a lack of tax increases in recent years.

Filling superintendent role

Also at Monday's meeting, school directors briefly discussed filling the chief of schools role once Superintendent Joseph Kovalchik retires in July.

At a recent special meeting, some school directors discussed wanting Kovalchik to stay in his role for fear it will be hard to hire a replacement.

Soldridge said Monday there has been no change to Kovalchik’s plans to retire.

Some school directors wanted to advertise the role on Indeed.com. Others said that was not the right place for such a position to be listed.

Some school directors also said the board needs to discuss the qualifications they want in potential candidates first before advertising the role.

School directors agreed to have an executive session to further discuss filling the superintendent position because it is a personnel matter.