Lehighton Area School Board may revisit whether to hire an outside security firm to patrol the middle school grounds during an asbestos abatement project.

On Nov. 17, the board voted 4-3 to hire the Lehigh Valley Law Enforcement Association at $18 per hour for a total of between $4,000 and $6,000.Two board members, Larry Stern and William Hill Jr., were absent from the meeting and the district fell short of the five-vote majority it needed to spend money.On Monday night, Stern questioned how things went over Thanksgiving break, the first time Sargent Enterprises was in the building to remove asbestos."There was one person who got in the building," Lehighton Superintendent Jonathan Cleaver said. "They didn't get in the part of the building where asbestos work was being done."JMSI Environmental Corporation, the firm managing the project for the district, asked the person, a man, to leave, which he did."We think it may have been a school employee," Cleaver said. "We're reviewing our video surveillance to find out."Stern suggested checking with JMSI before Dec. 22, Lehighton's next board meeting, to find out how comfortable they are with the security setup for the project."I'm sure the proper signage was up and still someone got in," Stern said. "I think we may want to take another look."At the Nov. 17 meeting, board members who voted against hiring the security firm included Rocky Ahner, Hal Resh and Lori Nothstein.Resh cited already having local police and not having private security during previous abatement projects as reasons not to approve the hire.According to the project schedule, Sargent will be back in the middle school on Dec. 12-14 and 19-21.As for results following the Thanksgiving break work, JMSI's Jeff Miller said all 15 air samples collected from school's "D-wing" were found to have no asbestos structures.Full air testing results are available on the district website,

www.lehighton.org.