For years, Lehighton Area School District administrators could make a public address announcement from one building and have it heard in another. What they couldn’t do was reach all four buildings at the same time.

That gap in the district’s emergency communication capability is now being closed.

The school board Monday night approved a five-year contract with Palmerton-based PenTeleData for two additional Session Initiation Protocol lines — known as SIPs — that will allow any building in the district to broadcast a PA announcement simultaneously to all others. The contract carries a one-time setup fee of $20 and a monthly recurring charge of $23.40.

“Right now, we’ve been able to make an announcement from one building to another, but to be able to do it all at one time is what we’re lacking in,” Gretchen Laviolette, the district’s director of academic programs and technology, said. “In an emergency situation, that could be critical.”

Laviolette explained the mechanics to the board. A SIP, she said, uses internet-based technology rather than traditional phone lines to carry voice communications between buildings.

“We’re working to have a system in place where we could make an announcement from any one of our four buildings that will go out districtwide simultaneously,” Laviolette said. “The two additional SIPs basically take the phone call aspect of things and make it internet-based to then go out to the buildings.”

The total annual cost of the upgrade works out to roughly $300. Laviolette noted that PenTeleData and Berkshire, who installed the intercom system, had put in considerable effort to make everything work before it came to the board for a vote.

“It has been a little bit of work to get this to work, but the two of them have been working so very well with each other,” Laviolette said. “It’s nice to have those businesses supporting us, not charging us anything more for what’s become months and months of work. They’re really working well with each other and supporting the district.”