The Northampton Area School District administration is exploring alternative uses for Moore Elementary School and will seek appraisals for the Washington, Franklin and administration buildings.

In a straw poll at the April 17 NASD Board of Education meeting, school directors voted 6-2 in favor of the district retaining ownership of Moore Elementary, 2835 Mountain View Drive (Route 946), Klecknersville, Moore Township - not as a district school classroom facility but for community or nondistrict education use.

“The straw vote was taken to provide direction to the administration on looking for options for the use of Moore Elementary School,” NASD Superintendent of Schools Joseph S. Kovalchik said in an April 24 phone interview.

NASD school board President James Chuss said, at the April 17 meeting, that Moore might be able to be used by Colonial Intermediate Unit 20 or Bethlehem Area Vocational-Technical School, each of which is said to need additional classroom and instruction room space.

“Jim (Chuss) mentioned a few options, whether it be for use by the intermediate unit, the vocational-technical school or the township or even another entity. Those are the discussions we’re going to have to have,” Kovalchik said. “I will reach out to some of those entities mentioned at the board meeting (IU and vo-tech) and other entities that may be able to use the building. And then our engineering firm will have to do an assessment and present that to the board to even see if it’s feasible to use the building without an extraordinary cost.”

“We focused on the cafeteria and gymnasium,” Chris Haller, senior project manager, D’Huy Engineering, district consulting engineering firm, said about the possible reuse of Moore in a presentation at the board meeting April 17.

Haller displayed diagrams and cost analysis for Moore on video screens at the meeting.

“How would we sector those areas off so that the rest of the building is decommissioned?” asked Haller during his PowerPoint presentation.

The cost for converting Moore to partial use is first cost, $179,000; contingency for final plans, $171,000, for a total cost of $350,000. The estimated annual operating cost is $111,500.

At the April 17 meeting, several school board members said they are in favor of NASD retaining ownership of Moore.

“I believe [Moore] can be kept open in some hybrid version,” school Director Robert Mentzell said.

“I think there’s a lot of good possible uses,” Chuss said.

“I don’t want to lose that building,” school Director Dr. Michael Baird said. “We have to give something to the community.”

“I agree with Dr. Baird,” school board Vice President John Becker said.

“My vote is to maintain it as elementary school,” school Director Kim Bretzik said.

“I vote to keep Moore as an elementary school,” school Director Doug Vaughn said.

Chuss, Becker, Baird, Mentzell, Ross Makary and Chuck Frantz (via phone) voted to retain ownership of Moore but seek alternative uses for the building. Bretzik and Vaughn voted to retain Moore as an elementary school. School Director David Gogel was absent.

With the Route 329 project, which includes an elementary school, instructional technology center and administration building, it’s likely the district would close Moore, Washington, Franklin and the administration building.

At the April 17 meeting, the school board, by consensus, approved getting appraisals for the Washington building (instructional technology department), 2389 Main St., Northampton; Franklin Elementary School (kindergarten building), 855 Lincoln Ave., Northampton; and district administration building, 2014 Laubach Ave., Northampton.

The appraisals will be coordinated by the district’s new solicitor. NASD Solicitor C. Steven Miller is retiring.

The school board voted 8-0 at the April 17 meeting to approve King, Spry, Herman, Freund & Faul, LLC, Bethlehem, effective May 1, as district solicitor.

In the phone interview, Kovalchik said the district’s aging buildings, as well as proposed housing projects, which could add to student enrollment, present a challenge for the school board and administration.

“It’s a multifaceted problem. You’re dealing with four district buildings that need to be upgraded, three of which are 100 years of age (Franklin, Washington and administration) and the fourth (Moore) that is 70 years of age. That’s one of the factors,” he said. “You have the 1,800 houses that are coming in over the next five to 10 years. The majority of them are in the eastern-southern district. You have the elementary school in town, which is at maximum capacity. Siegfried is at approximately 700, and Franklin, the elementary center, is at approximately 120.

“There are a lot of aspects connected with this, and it’s not an easy decision,” Kovalchik continued. “Whatever the decision is, the board needs to take action to resolve the facility issues with the four district buildings that we have been discussing since 2019. We just have to continue with the process, and the board will provide the direction and the administration, engineers and architects will follow that direction.”

The board of education next meets 6:30 p.m. May 8 in the auditorium at Northampton Area High School, 1619 Laubach Ave.