Lehighton Area School District’s board of directors approved a settlement agreement and release with Palmerton Area School District on Monday night for services provided to Palmerton students from the 2011-12 school year through the 2017-18 school year.

It follows an approval in January of a 10-year repayment plan that will see Palmerton pay Lehighton $57,340 each year, starting in the 2021-22 school year, for a decade. The last payment will include an extra $1.79, bringing the total paid by Palmerton to $573,401.79.

The money is for students who attended Lehighton for programs their home districts don’t offer.

District officials said when former business administrator Patricia Denicola was hired in 2019, she discovered the business office had not been sending the invoices in a timely manner and began efforts to get those bills paid.

“I think we’re sticking it to our taxpayers by giving them an interest-free loan for 10 years,” Lehighton Director David Bradley said Monday.

Bradley’s colleague, Nathan Foeller, said he thought the agreement was fair and was happy Palmerton was willing to pay the money.

“I’m happy we’re getting the payments because I think (Palmerton) may have had a pretty good argument in court,” Foeller said.

Palmerton also approved the settlement at its last board meeting.

Budgets

Lehighton also adopted 2021-22 budgets Monday night for Lehigh Carbon Community College, Carbon Career & Technical Institute and Carbon Lehigh Intermediate Unit.

The district stands to pay $234,533 to Lehigh Carbon Community College in 2021-22 between its operating budget and debt service responsibilities. It represents a $586 increase over the current year.

For CCTI, Lehighton’s budgeted cost share is $1.34 million, down $34,260 from $1.38 million this year.

Lehighton has an estimated contribution of $25,220 to the Carbon Lehigh Intermediate Unit budget. The district is also projected to use $1.51 million on services and programs provided by the Intermediate Unit, such as behavioral and emotional support.