Lehighton School Board members last night voted to appeal a recent decision upholding the tax-exempt status of the Gnaden Huetten Memorial Hospital, prompting one dissenting director to ask whether the board was trying to use the hospital to fund a proposed building project.

On a 5-2 vote with two abstentions, the directors authorized solicitor William Schwab to appeal the Oct. 30 decision by a county tax assessment and revision board which denied the district's challenge of the hospital's tax status.