Taxpayers United for a Safe, Debt free school, are asking Lehighton residents to consider signing a petition that offers taxpayers a choice to fixing the existing schools, using asset management and no debt, or to build a new elementary center.

The petitions will be collected and presented to the Lehighton Area School Board at the April 14 meeting.According to information posted on the

taxpayer@bradleytank.com website, the group formed to "protect students and taxpayers in the Lehighton Area School District from higher taxes, and children from being a nameless student in a much larger school by supporting fixing the four local elementary centers and using asset management to repair the present buildings and not incur more debt, versus building a new multimillion dollar elementary center."The site, maintained by David Bradley, a Lehighton businessman and taxpayer, contains links to media reports, YouTube videos from the Lehighton Area School District, personal notes from Facebook friends and email notes from the Pennsylvania Department of Education.The group has come up with a name, JERICHO for its action plan, using the initials of the four men from Carbon County who died during the Vietnam War. The capital letters in the name JERICHO remember J for (Charles) Jones, E for (Leon) Eckhart, C for (Ronald) Christman and H for (Clyde) Houser, with a few letters added."The JERICHO plan could be giving us a tax rebate, offering tax reductions and get the district out of the debt with the funds that are accumulated from our taxes," Bradley said.The group of business owners say that by using asset management and financial management, the schools can be fixed without the architect or the interest payments."We should be giving our taxes to the children and not the 'powers to be,' " he said.Bradley explains that means that the millions in funds should be used to make the present schools better.The group states on the site that EI Architects and Jonathan Cleaver, superintendent, are pitching a $30 million elementary center concept. This would put grades K-5 in a single building and close all the existing elementary schools."The simple math, the $30 million elementary center plus interest of $8 million on the bond, puts the number at spending $38 million giving the district a return on investment of 47.64 years," notes Bradley.Bradley encourages people to attend the school board meetings to become better educated in board actions.The board will meet at 7 p.m. Monday, April 14, and April 28."The April 14 meeting is the construction meeting," he said. "I would love to see everyone come out for the April 28 general meeting."