A public information meeting will be held 6:30 p.m. June 16 in the Northampton Area High School auditorium to discuss the proposed elementary school and education center on the district-owned Route 329 property.

NASD Superintendent of Schools Joseph S. Kovalchik sent an email the afternoon of May 12 to parents and guardians announcing the change in the date for the meeting, originally scheduled for June 15.

“The reason for the change in date is that Moore Township has a scheduled meeting June 15, for the same time as our originally scheduled meeting. The district is adjusting its meeting date of the proposed elementary and education center meeting to provide those who want to attend both meetings the opportunity to do so,” Kovalchik said.

In a May 10 video on the district’s YouTube channel, viewed 2,181 times, as of May 16, Kovalchik discussed the Route 329 project and other district topics, saying, “Right now, the board is looking at moving ahead and constructing a new elementary school as well as an administrative center, and that is going to have a ripple effect across the district.

“Part of the presentation is information on budgeting, transportation and those buildings that could be affected. We have four buildings coming in play here: Moore Elementary, the Franklin building, the district administration building and the Washington building. We’ll talk about all these things, the possible closure of some of these buildings and the possibility of redistricting students at the elementary level,” he said.

“Please don’t panic at this particular time because this, if it does occur, will occur in the (20)25-26 school year,” Kovalchik added. “It’s a little bit down the road, but we’ve been talking about this for a number of years. It’s part of our capital projects. It has been on the district website. We’ve been talking about it at school board meetings.

“We’re going to have a special meeting for all of you that have any particular type of questions. We’ll talk about the increase of enrollment across the school district in some of our elementary schools and the decrease in enrollment in some of those elementary schools across the district, as well as a cost analysis of renovating a school building or an elementary school or the district administration building and comparing that to costing and building a new facility,” he said.

To view the Route 329 meeting information, where there’s a link to the capitals projects presentation, visit nasdschools.org/article/740947.

COVID-19 dashboard

The NASD website COVID-19 data dashboard seven-day building totals, May 10-16, as of May 16, are NAHS, 8, no change; Northampton Area Middle School, 24, up from 9; Borough Elementary Schools, 4, no change; Moore Elementary School, 6, up from 4; Lehigh Elementary School, 4, up from 3; George Wolf Elementary School, 3, up from 2; and district administration building, 4, up from 2.

The number of positive COVID-19 cases in NASD for the 2021-22 school year to date is 1,252.