Crews are putting the finishing touches on S.S. Palmer Elementary renovations as Palmerton Area School District gets set to welcome students back on Monday.

Though the district has yet to receive its occupancy permit following a project that relocated the school’s office suite from the second level to the ground floor and added a secured entrance vestibule, teachers were allowed into the building starting Saturday to prep their rooms.

“We were hopeful for our occupancy permit last week, but it has been delayed due to additional smoke detectors that were necessary in the area of the school that has been renovated,” Ryan Kish, interim superintendent, said during Tuesday night’s board workshop. “They are being roughed in today and tomorrow and Johnson Controls will be here Thursday to program them. We will then have another occupancy permit inspection on Thursday afternoon.”

The start of the 2024-25 school year in Palmerton was delayed until Sept. 9 to give crews time to finish renovations. The project, which cost around $1.5 million, also included the removal of the large existing staircase that greeted visitors upon entry and an ADA accessible ramp added to the front entrance.

While the smoke detector hiccup won’t impact Monday’s start date for students, board President Sherry Haas and director Earl Paules took the project’s design team to task Tuesday.

“This was missed on the drawings and they’re going to try to charge the taxpayers $12,000 for it,” Paules said. “I think the architect (Crabtree, Rohrbaugh and Associates) should pick that up. They also missed the speaker system in the new office suite and that was about $9,000. I want to fight it. They try to do this to school districts all the time. I promised there would be no change orders and I’m going to try to make sure it stays that way.”

Haas said more than one entity missed the fact that smoke detectors were not included on the original drawings.

Those companies, according to Paules, were Crabtree, Rohrbaugh and Associates; and Barry Isett and Associates.

“The same company who reviewed and approved those drawings denied our occupancy permit because we didn’t have what they missed,” Haas said. “How can you build a room in a school and not think about a smoke alarm?”

Kish credited local electrical contractor Kris Silfies with going above and beyond to make sure the work gets done.

“He’s a Palmerton parent,” Kish said. “He’s helped out a lot and has his guys over there to get this taken care of.”