Lehighton Area School Board Director Dave Krause bid farewell to the school board at the last meeting.

With 112 school board meetings under his belt, he dispensed advice on how he feels the school district can improve."Unfortunately, the past two years have been somewhat of a disappointment and a step backwards especially in regards to academics and facilities," Krause said."We have become more of a halls and walls, doors and floors institution worrying about who is going to shovel the snow, mow the grass, or fix the sidewalks," he continued. "Not that these are not important they are but the amount of time spent on academic issues has been minimal in comparison to these 'housekeeping' issues."Serving as school board president for six of his eight years on the board, Krause was voted out of office in the 2013 primaries.Addressing the building plan that failed to receive the required approval of the majority of school board directors in November 2011, Krause said, "We had plans in place two years ago to move forward to address much-needed repairs for our aging facilities. If we had moved forward at that time, many of our students would be moving into new or upgraded facilities this coming year."He said the board could have financed building projects with 'once in a lifetime' historic low interest rates and would have benefitted from lower construction costs due to the sluggish economy. "This would have saved millions of dollars yes, you heard me right millions over the term of the debt," he continued.After thanking fellow school board directors, administrators, and teachers who helped him during his tenure and wishing them future success, Krause warned, "It's time 'right the ship.' I would encourage the new board to spend less time trying to micro-manage operational issues and more time focused on policies to improve student achievement."The re-organizational meeting of Lehighton Area School Board is scheduled for 7 p.m. Monday, Dec. 2 at the school Administration Building, Conference Room A.