The Tamaqua Area School Board has put its plans with AEM Architects on hold temporarily. The decision was made at the board meeting Monday night.

AEM presented a full feasibility study to the board in October, which included every square foot of the entire school district.

AEM’s proposed total project budget, which included massive renovations of each district building, tallied over $77 million. The proposal included multiple phases of construction that would last roughly a decade until every bit is completed.

“The initial impetus for this was the security,” said school board President Larry Wittig during an interview last October.

“From my perspective, I can’t speak for anyone else, I’m looking for what it costs to get a comprehensive entry system in all of the buildings - and a meaningful one. It has to be something that is restrictive enough. … I’m still big on alarming the doors, which may or may not have been part of their study. We have a lot of homework to do.”

The idea of a feasibility study was started by the Tamaqua Safety Commission, which suggested a comprehensive evaluation of all district building entryways to help protect students and staff.

“The environment today is one of building materials either not being available or (prices) going through the roof,” Wittig said earlier this week.

“We, as a board, didn’t collectively feel secure with the numbers that AEM was coming up with - and again that’s their job, I understand that. But we felt as a pragmatic decision of the board, to evaluate the language with a little more scrutiny.”

The board received much more than entryway information in the feasibility study, with many additional suggestions that were not urgent or necessary. Over the past few months, the board has sifted through the information and prioritized certain projects or issues to address.

“I think we’re just looking for clarification from our solicitor on some of the legal language,” said Ray Kinder, Tamaqua superintendent.

“As well as some of the board members just want a little longer to look at it. So, it was pulled, we’re going to check some things there and maybe bring it back up again, that’s what it comes down to.”