A number of items stored in now unused portable classrooms and an old cafeteria in the middle school will likely be sold or scrapped by Lehighton Area School District.

As part of its school board workshop meeting earlier this week, Lehighton released the list of surplus items, which include brand-new teepee café tables, large whiteboards, and several pallets of fluorescent lights.

Business Manager Ed Rarick said after the board approves the surplus list, the items can either be priced individually then put up for sale, or they could be listed online and sealed bids could be accepted.

“We had a van and a lawn mower that we took sealed bids for last year, but I think a negotiated sale may be the better way to go because the district might get a little better price,” Rarick said.

A number of items on the list, available at https://bit.ly/3Od93vc, were put in storage at the middle school after Lehighton closed its four elementary schools and opened a new elementary center housing all K-5 students in 2018.

The 12 teepee café tables were purchased for the elementary center, Middle School Principal Steve Ebbert told the board, but the design was not the district had anticipated and they were never used.

When the four elementary schools closed, many items, including 51 filing cabinets removed from those classrooms, were also put in storage.

“Most of those filing cabinets have actually been kept in what would have been the old freezer from our old cafeteria at the middle school,” Ebbert said.

Two pallets of fluorescent lights, totaling about 100 bulbs on each pallet, were not used because the district upgraded to LED lighting.

“If Behavioral Health Associates has an older building they are using that doesn’t have LED lighting, they could probably use these, but they are no longer viable for us,” Ebbert told the board.

According to Rarick, several of the items are broken or old and will likely have to be scrapped.

BHA, he added, has expressed interest in many of the items still in good shape.

“In our effort to remove the portable classrooms at the middle school, we connected with BHA and we informed them that everything was for sale,” Rarick said.

LASD’s board will vote Monday on approval of the surplus list.