The Lehighton Area School District board of directors voted 6-1 on Monday night, with two members absent, to table a motion to hire a consultant to conduct a traffic analysis within its high school and elementary center campus.

The board had received cost proposals from two companies for the traffic study: Transportation Management Services at $10,540 and Barry Isett and Associates at $17,550. The study was intended to evaluate the current traffic patterns and identify any potential safety issues or improvements.

However, some board members questioned the need for the study, citing the positive feedback from the school police and the parents about the new traffic regulations that were implemented before the 2023-24 school year.

“I don’t know that we need to spend the money on an analysis,” director Barbara Bowes said. “If our police are out there and it is going well, what is the study going to show?”

The new traffic regulations include no parking allowed on Union Street or Indian Lane for afternoon pick-ups until 2:45 p.m., and designated exit and entrance routes for staff and students leaving or entering the campus between 2:15-3:15 p.m.

In past years, Superintendent Dr. Christina Fish said, some elementary school parents or guardians line up for pickup as early as 1:15 p.m. for a 3 p.m. dismissal, leading to some vehicles driving into oncoming traffic to try to get around the logjam.

“The traffic patterns we implemented are going smoothly,” Fish said Monday night. “Elementary dismissal is going well. Our police officers have been out and present and parents have really responded positively and adhered to our time requirement.”

Board President Joy Beers was the only director to vote against tabling the study.

“I would rather still do the study,” she said. “I understand what we are doing seems to be working, but I think there is more to the analysis than just observing problems.”

Kerry Sittler and Richard Beltz did not attend the meeting.