A meeting set for 6:30 p.m. Dec. 18 could determine the future of the Route 329 elementary school and education center project. The special meeting, to be held in the Northampton Area High School auditorium, was called by consensus of the Northampton Area School District Board of Education.

If the project is halted, NASD could reportedly lose millions in project costs spent and also face lawsuits, according to the administration.

NASD Superintendent of Schools Joseph S. Kovalchik, in a phone interview Dec. 11, previewed the main item on the agenda the school board is to consider for a vote: “to terminate, effective Dec. 19, the following prime construction contracts previously approved Nov. 13, associated with the Route 329 building project.” Six contracts are listed.

NASD school directors voted 7-2, at the Nov. 13 meeting, to approve six prime construction contracts for the $75.8 million project at Route 329 and Seemsville Road in East Allen Township, where site preparation work began Dec. 1 per the board vote.

Kovalchik said the Dec. 18 meeting “was the direction of the board. There was no vote.”

Board Vice President Kristin Soldridge called for a meeting on the Route 329 project at the Dec. 4 meeting. The project engineer and architect, as well as the district solicitor and business administrator, will attend the meeting, which is open to the public.

“I do not know how the vote’s going to go,” Kovalchik said. “If the contracts are terminated, the work would cease.”

He added the district has already spent about $3.5 million on engineering, architects and associated costs. Additionally, since work has already begun at the site, the contractors have placed orders for materials.

“If the contracts are terminated, there’s the potential for legal action from the contractors,” Kovalchik said. “There are going to be additional costs. JW (David Jaindl, of JW Development Partner) paid for the detention basin, the roadways, the utilities, the traffic light and the acreage sold to them. All that together was millions of dollars.”

School directors voted 6-3, at the Dec. 4 meeting, to authorize general obligation bonds, series of 2024, adopting a parameters resolution, for $41.2 million in an Internet auction for the elementary school.

“There are going to be no formal presentations,” Kovalchik said of the Dec. 18 meeting. “There have been eight presentations over the last three years, which are on the district website. There will be discussion and the district will answer questions associated with this project, as we have always done.”

The school board is considering keeping Moore Elementary School open, which would cost a minimum of $23.3 million to renovate.

According to Kovalchik, the tax increase for the school project, based on the average $63,000 assessment in the 98-square-mile school district, would cost the average assessed property owner $30 annually.

If the Route 329 property is not used for the new school, NASD would have to restore the property.

“It would go back to farming,” Kovalchik said.