The financing plan for the Route 329 project is expected to be on the agenda of the Northampton Area School District Board of Education meeting Dec. 4.

The meeting, set for 6:30 p.m. Dec. 4, follows the 6:15 p.m. reorganization meeting when school directors elected in the Nov. 7 general election will be installed.

NASD school directors voted 7-2 at the board of education meeting Nov. 13 to authorize the Route 329 project and approve the prime construction contracts. Before the vote, Jamie Doyle, PFM Financial Advisors managing director, presented a financing discussion. PFM Financial Advisors is the district financial consultant.

This recent financial discussion served as an update to the presentation she made at the school board meeting Oct. 9. A copy of that financing presentation is on the NASD website, nasdschools.org.

At the Nov. 13 meeting, Doyle told school directors and administrators, “The investment rates are still higher than the rates that you would borrow.”

Doyle said during her school board presentation Oct. 9 that it’s an opportune time for NASD to finance the Route 329 project.

The parameters resolution, expected to be on the Dec. 4 agenda, authorizes the district to issue bonds in order to enter the market when it’s most advantageous. The resolution “provides flexibility,” Doyle added at the Nov. 13 board meeting.

The next steps for the financing of the Route 329 project would be pricing of the 2024 bonds to lock in interest rates, expected at the Jan. 3, 2024, school board meeting, and settlement of the 2024 bonds at the Feb. 7, 2024, school board meeting.

The administration would work with PFM, as financial adviser, and King, Spry, Herman, Freund and Faul, as bond counsel, to issue general obligation bonds, series of 2024, in the approximate amount of $34,900,000; series of 2025, in the approximate amount of $27,765,000; and series of 2026, in the amount of $7,170,000, in a competitive Internet auction to fund a capital improvement plan for the Route 329 project.

The elementary school and education center project at Route 329 and Seemsville Road, in East Allen Township, is expected to cost $75,858,529, according to a presentation at the Nov. 13 meeting by Arif Fazil, president of D’Huy Engineering Inc., district consulting engineer.

The Route 329 project timeline includes:

• Nov. 30: Preconstruction meetings with the project team, East Allen Township and Northampton County Conservation District

• Dec. 1: Install erosion and sedimentation control systems and begin earth-moving

• Dec. 22: Complete installation of construction entrances and staging area

• Jan. 24-Feb. 15, 2024: Complete stormwater channels and proceed with site work

• May 12, 2026: Building substantially complete

• July 29, 2026: Project complete

In other business at the Nov. 13 board meeting, school directors voted 9-0 to approve:

• The administration to develop a girls wrestling program at the startup cost of approximately $36,151.40

• Creation of Debra J. Brobst Memorial Scholarship Fund

• Creation of Northampton Area Middle School student activity account for the NAMS orchestra; Northampton Area High School student activity accounts for the Japanese Club and In Her Element

• Revised NASD health and safety plan, required under the American Rescue Plan Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief Fund. The plan may be subject to further revisions as required by changing circumstances or federal or commonwealth orders and guidance. The superintendent of schools is authorized to adjust the plan based on the mitigation chart and input from state and local health care advisers. Plan changes will be placed on the district website and communicated to parents/ guardians.

• Resolution indicating the school board will not raise the rate of any tax for the 2024-25 fiscal year by more than the district’s Act 1 Index of 6.6%

• Title III program, Embracing English for Adults, eight Wednesday evenings, planned for Feb. 7-March 27, 2024. Staff members to be paid with Title III funds at no cost to the district: Stephanie Szoke, Robin Matis, Jennifer Gensits and August Chien

• Jared Hunsberger, NAHS long-term substitute business, computer and information technology teacher, effective second semester 2023-24 school year, at $58,855, pro-rated

• Adam Mazarul, NAHS 1:1 special education instructional assistant, effective retroactive to Oct. 26, at $18.88 per hour

• Kelly Beck, NAHS special education instructional assistant, effective retroactive to Oct. 30 through March 27, 2024, at $15.32 per hour

• Melinda McCann, George Wolf and Moore elementary schools long-term substitute gifted support teacher, effective Jan. 12-May 31, 2024, at $58,855, prorated