A proposal for a solar site lease and solar power purchase agreements at one of its elementary schools has been rebuffed in the Northern Lehigh School District.

The school board on a 5-4 vote last week rejected the solar site lease and solar power purchase agreements with McClure Company at Peters Elementary as presented in the solar report dated June 5, contingent upon solicitor review and approval of the contract terms before signature by the board president and secretary.

Voting against the measure were directors Rhonda Frantz, Gale Husack, Donna Kulp, Natalie Snyder and Chad Christman. In favor were directors Gary Fedorcha, Robert Kern, Robin Distler, and board President Mathias Green.

Before the vote, Christman weighed in on the topic.

“I think we need to be really careful of this one,” Christman said. “I know we’ve been going back and forth for a long time, and I think there’s still a lot of uncertainties that we need to explore, and I hope the rest of you can see that there’s a lot of questions, there are a lot of uncertainties, there’s a lot of things I think we need to still explore.”

Superintendent Dr. Matthew J. Link said the agreement would have been to enter into a 30-year Power Purchasing Agreement which involved leasing the Solar Array from McClure Company to transition Peters Elementary to 100% solar power by the start of the 2024-2025 school year.

Link said the projected savings would have been about $694,000.