If all goes well, Northern Lehigh School District could eventually recover a substantial amount of money in back payments it's owed from the State Department of Education.

By a unanimous measure, the school board recently approved the resolution in support of House Bill 2124, calling for Reform of the Commonwealth's PlanCon system.Before the vote, Sherri Molitoris, co-director of business affairs/human resources, told the board that the district could see the money sometime within the year.After the meeting, Molitoris said the amount the district is owed in reimbursement by PDE is about $350,000.The reimbursement is for the district's $20.4 million renovation project at Slatington Elementary that was completed in 2012.Introduced by Rep. Seth Grove, the resolution amends the Public School Code to provide for a more modern, simplified, transparent and financially sustainable process of reimbursement, and is a significant step in solving an overly-complicated problem that is costing school districts and local taxpayers millions of dollars.House Bill 2124, along with an additional appropriation of state money, will begin to address the backlog of school district construction projects awaiting reimbursement.The district, upon recommendations from a feasibility study, began the project in 2009 to renovate Slatington Elementary, and build an addition on an administration building to address the issues of an open concept education building, school safety, and a failing heating, ventilation, and air conditioning system.The district submitted a Part H application on March 14, 2011, and has completed construction.