Coming under fire from one taxpayer Monday night, Lehighton Area School District's superintendent defended a recent decision to spend around $25,000 to get a fire alarm system up and running quickly at the high school instead of waiting at least a month to replace it.

Jonathan Cleaver said the administration became aware of an issue with the system and the district received two quotes, one to get it operating as soon as possible and one to completely overhaul it."The piece to keep us running cost around $25,000, while replacing the panel was $150,000," Cleaver said. "We met with our staff and the Lehighton fire chief. Our system is dated and it's hard to find parts for it. Fortunately, we were able to find someone who had the part we needed through another vendor. We got it up and running as quickly as possible."Taxpayer David Bradley equated the decision to choosing between a $25,000 "Band-Aid" and a $150,000 "upgrade.""The superintendent made this decision without board oversight," Bradley said. "It's irresponsible."Safety decisions, Cleaver said, are made daily with the best interest of the students in mind."We were looking at 4-6 weeks for an entire overhaul of the system," he said. "It's not something you can just dig up and put in. There is a lot of computer programming that goes into it. With the other option being shutting down the school for 4-6 weeks, I am proud of my decision. I'm always proud when it comes to the safety of our students."While the system was down, high school staff walked the halls as "fire monitors" until the fix could be made."We developed a plan and met with the fire chief immediately," Cleaver said. "Our staff worked into the night and they deserve a lot of credit."A similar problem is being corrected at East Penn Elementary School.