Lehighton Area School District plans to make a decision at Tuesday night's board meeting on how the contractor for an HVAC replacement at its middle school will be selected.

At an informational meeting Thursday night, school board members heard from Maryland-Pennsylvania Trane representatives about the logistics of doing a guaranteed energy savings, or ESCO, project. The ESCO process is allowed under the state's Act 39 and differs from the conventional situation where a district would bid the work and choose the lowest bidder who met the specification.Under Act 39, Trane can guarantee the district that the amount on the signed contract is what the project will cost. While a general contractor could bid a certain amount, the end cost is unknown due to the potential for change orders."We don't do change orders under the ESCO project," said John Linn, a representative for Trane. "If something isn't working or goes awry with the project, we come back and make it right at no charge to the district."The guarantee is good during installation of the system and a five-year parts and service warranty.Energy savings would be guaranteed for 20 years.Overall renovations at the middle school are estimated to cost $10.92 million plus any alternates the board would choose. Beyond the mechanical system overhaul, the project includes a roof replacement, a secured building entrance, and exterior window and door replacement, among other improvements.Alternates for the project include double-tier lockers, new auditorium seats, a student dining patio, replacement casework in the science laboratories, and new rigging, lighting and sound equipment in the auditorium."I can't find a downside to the ESCO," board member William Hill Jr. said. "If you just bid it out, a contractor is going to charge you every time there is a specification missing or something goes awry. We are locked in and guaranteed with this."Fellow board member Larry Stern said the difference for him is also the guarantee that comes with the ESCO."I don't think you can overlook the service and the quality of the installation," he said.Linn said if the board gives Trane the approval for an ESCO project, it would take three to four weeks to come back with "tight numbers" for the cost, energy savings and operational savings.Resident David Bradley questioned why the board wouldn't have Trane also give a quote on doing the same thing at Lehighton's four elementary schools.For months, the board has been progressing with plans to build a $32.5 million "elementary center" and close the four schools."Everyone here just agreed this is such a wonderful program and it's a very simple process with a group who knows what they are doing," Bradley said. "Why can't we just get an estimate so that our children aren't in the elementary schools getting rained on. Why don't you care about the kids enough?"Board President Gloria Bowman said the existing elementary schools need much more than just an HVAC replacement."There are substantial issues that need to be addressed in those schools and we did a feasibility study that showed it would cost $5 to $6 million per school to fix," Bowman said.