A $2 million grant will be used by the Lehighton Area School District for energy savings at the proposed elementary center.

Superintendent Jonathan Cleaver announced at the school board's building committee workshop meeting Monday that the district has been awarded the grant from the Department of Community and Economic Development through the state's Alternate and Clean Energy Program.The new 140,000-square-foot K-2 primary and 3-5 elementary center will replace four aging facilities.The grant will provide funding for a geothermal HVAC system, energy-efficient lighting, natural daylighting and thermal envelope, and is anticipated to reduce energy consumption.In addition, new low-flow water fixtures will save the district 30 percent of the annual water usage at the building.Afterward, Cleaver again gave a slideshow presentation that showed the financial impact a new elementary center could have on taxpayers.Cleaver said the purpose of the slideshow was to alleviate confusion of the numbers involved with the potential construction of a new center.He then reviewed several borrowing options, as well as the effect it could have on taxpayers.In April, amid public opposition, the school board, on a 5-4 vote, agreed to authorize the submission of a request to the Pennsylvania Department of Education to combine the previously submitted paperwork for four elementary project submittals into one elementary project by the administration and the architect, EI Associates, for the project known as the new primary/elementary center.The proposed site of the elementary center would be at the southwest corner of the property already owned by the district at the high school/administration building campus, behind the varsity softball field.Construction of a new elementary center would place students in grades K-5 in one building and close each of the district's four existing elementary schools.The district has been faced with a decision to either renovate its four elementary school buildings, all built in the 1950s, or replace them with a new elementary center.District officials say costs for either scenario, new construction or renovations, are projected to be about the same at about $32.5 million.In early April, the board voted 5-4 to realign the district classes by moving the fifth-grade students back to the elementary level.As a result, students in kindergarten through fifth grade will attend the elementary schools or proposed elementary center. Students in grades six through eight will attend the middle school; and the high school will still serve students in grades nine through 12.In addition, the district is looking at $10.7 million to renovate the middle school, along with $9.3 million to renovate the high school.That brings the total projected building costs throughout the school district to $52.5 million.