It was “the golden hour,” the time of day when lighting is optimal for cinematography and photography. As the sun set over Seemsville Road Sept. 19, officials gathered for a commemorative groundbreaking ceremony for East Allen Elementary School.

Beneath a brilliant, nearly cloudless, bright blue sky, under warm rays of the waning sun and with a light breeze, the view was spectacular — a scenic overlook.

From the hillside where school construction is underway, a panorama of the Lehigh Valley is visible nearly 20 miles to the south, from the Stabler Observation Tower at Iacocca Hall on Lehigh University’s Mountaintop campus to the east and the air traffic control tower of Lehigh Valley International Airport to the west.

“Today marks the commitment of the school district to provide the resources for the students. The building itself will not just allow students to be successful,” Northampton Area School District Superintendent of Schools Joseph S. Kovalchik said, emphasizing the teamwork of NASD teachers, administrators, employees, school board members and parents make it possible. “Northampton (Area School District) is the best-kept secret. The district is primed to be the next major success in the Lehigh Valley.

“Success doesn’t happen by accident. Everyone was involved in this school,” Kovalchik added.

Approvals and collaborations for the project were required from the school board, Allen and East Allen townships, Bethlehem Authority, Northampton Borough Municipal Authority and the commonwealth of Pennsylvania, among others.

East Allen Elementary School, at Route 329 and Seemsville Road, is to open in the fall of 2026 for the 2026-27 academic year.

In addition to the elementary school, the facility will include the NASD information technology department and administration center.

The Sept. 19 dedication ceremony took place after Sept. 9 votes by the board of education to approve the name of the new school as East Allen Elementary School and to authorize general obligation bonds for $31 million to finance the second phase of the Route 329 elementary school and education center project.

Construction of the $75.8-million project in East Allen Township began in November 2023.

“This site has been very challenging,” D’Huy Engineering Inc. President Arif Fazil said to the invited guests at the dedication ceremony.

D’Huy Engineering is the consulting engineering firm for NASD.

Geopiers were installed at the site. The piers are placed into soil to increase load-bearing capacity and stability. Use of geopiers is because the site has karse soil, made up of limestone, typical in the Lehigh Valley. A similar technique was used for construction of PPL Center, Allentown.

“We situated the buildings to take advantage of the slope,” Fazil said. “One of the challenges was infrastructure.”

Building a school on the Seemsville site has been years, if not decades, in the making, dating to the mid-1990s when the district proposed a high school and then a middle school there.

D’Huy prepared the district’s capital master plan in 2011, which is updated annually, and which led to the new East Allen Elementary School, Lehigh Elementary School and Northampton Area Middle School and the expansion and renovation of Northampton Area High School.

The East Allen site became more feasible after the district approved an agreement in 2018 with Jaindl-Watson Development, which paid for $4.5 million in improvements, including a realigned Seemsville Road, a Route 329 and Seemsville Road traffic light, stormwater improvements, the extension of water and sewer lines, a retention pond and an easement for 11.6 acres of the 92.32-acre school district tract.

“We’re limiting ourselves to 30 acres of the 90-acre site for the school,” Fazil said.

A conservation district on the east side includes what is believed to be the site of a Native American settlement.

Undeveloped land at the site will continue to be rented out for farming.

“It’s not just for the students — it’s for the community,” Kovalchik said. “I want the district to flourish. I want it to be better than ever.”

A commercial passenger jet from LVIA took off in the distance, symbolic of the soaring education that awaits students at East Allen Elementary School.

Editor’s note: At the dedication, former school director Robert Mentzell presented a history of public education in the East Allen region. Look for his remarks in the Oct. 3 edition of Northampton Press.