Palmerton Area School District officials presented scaled-back construction plans Tuesday that would cost approximately $14 million, but would keep sixth grade students at Towamensing and S.S. Palmer elementary schools instead of moving them to the junior high school campus.

Tuesday’s workshop meeting focused primarily on plans to relocate district administrative offices, which would free up 7,700 square feet of space on the third floor of Parkside for student use as early as August 2025.

“I want to commend the board for their financial responsibility in working their way to where we are today with this current model,” Superintendent Angela Friebolin said. “We’ve gone from $60 million to $27 million to $15 million and now down to $14 million.”

As an interim measure if the district administrative staff does vacate Parkside, the board has been exploring rental space at 3295 Forest Inn Road. There is suite space available, Friebolin said, in a plaza that includes Good Shepherd Physical Therapy and Iron Valley Real Estate.

“It’s an excellent temporary location we could lease for the district administrative staff should the board choose to move in the direction of a new office off the high school gym,” she said.

The presentation detailed four different configurations for the new 11,000 square foot district office space, with officials expressing preference for “Option 4,” which features an exterior, multi-purpose meeting room.

This design “allows the security and privacy of the interior office space with the accessibility of a multi-purpose room that we could use not only for board meetings, but for professional development activities,” Friebolin said.

If approved, construction would be completed with “ribbon cutting targeted for August of 2027,” a year later than initially planned for the district office occupation.

“But it’s not about us, it’s about the kids,” Friebolin said. “So if they are already able to occupy Parkside third floor, we just rent for another year.”

Officials emphasized that the current proposal maintains flexibility for future expansion. When asked about the potential for eventually moving sixth grade classes, Friebolin said, “This year does not get us sixth grade to the middle school. But doing construction in this way does not rule out us adding sixth grade wing at a future date.”

Moving sixth grade to the junior high would have cost around $27 million due to an additional wing that would have been constructed, she added.

Originally, the new district administration office was proposed off the back of the junior high school gymnasium. Relocating it to the west side of the high school gym, officials said, would allow construction equipment access to the back of the junior high school should the board decide to add a wing for sixth grade in the future.

The $14 million plan still includes relocating the high school office, and creating a secured entrance, to a 10,820-square-foot addition on the east side of the building closest to the junior high school parking lot.

If the project is approved, Palmerton would gain three classrooms where the old office space was and three more classrooms on the second floor of the addition.

Friebolin said the plans will now be presented for a school board vote. Palmerton’s next meeting is scheduled for April 15.