The steering committee for Palmerton Area School District’s feasibility study is set to meet Tuesday for the first time since an Oct. 22 town hall meeting where feedback was largely negative about an option to realign elementary schools.

“Clearly, we have more work to do,” Palmerton board member and steering committee member Kris Schaible said during a workshop session Wednesday night. “The results of the town hall were not favorable toward a grade realignment so we’ll sit down with the architects and go over all of the comments and questions we have gotten. We haven’t made any decisions on anything and there is no reason to rush the process.”

The district’s board of directors tasked RLPS Architects, at a cost of nearly $18,000, in 2023 to do Palmerton’s first such study in 25 years, examining its educational design, facility improvements, and security measures.

During the town hall meeting two weeks ago, Mike Savage, the lead architect on the study, outlined a one-, three- and five- year recommendation. In the first year, all kindergarten students would attend Parkside Education Center, all first through third grade students would attend Towamensing Elementary and all fourth through sixth grade students would attend S.S. Palmer.

The first-year plan also calls for a secure entrance to be added to Palmerton Area High School. In year three, kindergarten students would be moved to an addition built to Towamensing and Parkside would only house district administrative offices.

In year five, high school administrative staff would be moved to an addition in the front of the building.

While that was a recommendation from RLPS after meetings with Palmerton’s steering committee, the district’s board could pick and choose parts of it or none of it at all.

Michelle Muffley, teachers union president, asked during the town hall meeting whether any grade realignment would happen as early as the 2025-26 school year. She was told no.

Schaible polled the board members Tuesday night on what questions or comments they wanted to ask or provide to RLPS during the upcoming committee meeting.

One suggestion that gained traction from several directors was finding out the feasibility, including a cost estimate, to build on to the current junior high school and move sixth grade there.

“We’re going to keep working through what the future will look like and how we’ll get there,” Schaible said during the workshop. “We need to make sure children across the entire school district are getting the best education possible. I can tell you that I personally didn’t vote to spend $18,000 to get this giant document and then not do anything with it.”

Schaible said updates would continue to be provided at every board meeting and the district is also looking into dedicating a section of its website to feasibility study progress.

“We need to tell the public something,” Earl Paules, a school board member who also sits on the steering committee, said. “They’re looking to us for answers.”

One study recommendation Palmerton is hoping to turn into reality sooner than later is the addition of a secured entrance at the high school.

“We need to look at that because the security of our kids is very important,” board President Sherry Haas said. “We put in those metal detectors, which was a complete failure. The secured entrance needs to be a priority.”

Facilities Director Joe Faenza said the district has reached out to three architects for proposals on designing and bidding the project.

“We don’t have the numbers yet,” Faenza said, “but we should in the near future.”