The Jim Thorpe Area School Board has taken another step forward in its plan to build a new administration building, replacing its offices which are currently located in an 80-year-old school.

The board voted 6-2 at its meeting Tuesday night to authorize an architect to create a schematic drawing for a new building.The district currently uses a former junior high as its administration building - which costs them about $40,000 each year just for utilities.The architect is Benjamin Walbert. The work is expected to cost $1,995.Board members Glenn Confer and Gerald Strubinger opposed the motion. Confer said he had not had a chance to review the proposal.Strubinger said he doesn't want the board to be stuck with the current building, a former school, when they build the new one.He also said that the board should not rule out the old Jim Thorpe Area High School, which is currently being rented by Lehigh Carbon Community College.LCCC can leave its lease at any time with 90 days notice, board solicitor Gregory Mousseau said, but the college has asked to extend its current lease through at least 2017."There are several issues we have to take under consideration," Strubinger said.The district's current administration building is a former junior high school built in the 1930s.The district spends about $40,000 in utility costs for its current building, a former junior high on Center Avenue, each year, according to district officials.The board also voted to appoint a new president and vice president as part of its annual reorganization.Dr. Michael Principe will serve as president. Principe was appointed to the board in 2014 to fill a vacancy left by a resignation. In November he was re-elected to a four-year term. Principe is a professor of law and politics at William Paterson College in New Jersey.Former President Dennis McGinley announced last month that he would not seek another year as the board's president.The vice president will be Pearl Downs-Sheckler. She was first elected to the board in 2011.