Lehighton Area School District has scheduled a board meeting for Wednesday at 6 p.m. during which it plans to discuss offering afternoon bus transportation for its elementary students living within borough limits.

If approved, students would begin being dropped off by George’s Transportation buses on Jan. 4 at Second and Coal Street, Second and Iron Street, and Second and Bridge Street.

“Separate buses would be needed in order to accommodate the listed stops and Mr. (Leon) George has an additional driver he would like to get approved at the special meeting,” Lehighton Superintendent Jonathan Cleaver said in an email. “All Lehighton Area Elementary Center students residing in the borough, who live up to and including Fifth Street, would be eligible. We would emphasize to parents/guardians that if they are still available to transport their children, to continue that practice, as it would keep the amount of students to a minimum on the bus and help mitigate the risk of spreading COVID-19.”

Elementary Center officials will be sending an alert out to eligible households in order to get an estimate on the number of students who would be interested in the district’s afternoon transportation, and will collect the data to assign one of the three locations to the students for drop-off.

In late August, Lehighton’s board passed a motion allowing for up to $800,000 to be spent on student busing with George’s Transportation Co. This came after nonmandated transportation was not included in the district’s 2020-21 budget. The transportation plan, however, did not call for busing students who live in Lehighton Borough.

In November, the district added three bus stops, at the same locations as proposed for the afternoon, for morning pickup.

Adding the morning transportation cost the district an additional $50 maximum per day.

Cleaver said the afternoon runs would also be capped at $50 per day.