Arthur Oakes Jr., the Tamaqua Area School District's Director of Facilities, is resigning to take another position. The school board accepted his resignation during their meeting Tuesday.

Oakes is a graduate of Tamaqua Area High School and the Schuylkill Technology Center. He was hired with the district August 20, 2007. As Director of Facilities he was in charge of five school buildings, the district's administrative office building, the football stadium and athletic fields."He definitely pulled us into the 21st century," said Superintendent Carol Makuta. "He's going to be missed."Makuta said that Oakes has accepted a similar position at Northwestern Lehigh School District. She said that Oakes will continue working for the district "to finalize projects" to facilitate a smooth transition.The biggest project overseen by Oakes was the district's revamp of aged heating, air and ventilation systems at the Tamaqua school complex and West Penn Elementary School from 2009-2011. During the approximately two-year renovations, the school's HVAC systems were replaced by geothermal systems. Once the new heating systems were installed, the district saved 2,250,000 kilowatt hours of electricity and 10,000 gallons of fuel oil per year.Oakes was not at the school board meeting Tuesday, and did not return calls.