Before change order votes were even cast in Palmerton Area School District Tuesday night, the architect delivering the news made one thing clear.

“I might as well make this a miserable evening for everybody, including me,” Jay Clough of KCBA Architects told the board. “There’ll be more of them.”

The board approved eight change orders totaling $50,648 for the district’s high school addition and new administration building, with several passing on split 5-4 votes. That came after an exchange over an incomplete site survey, unforeseen underground utilities and a last-minute decision to keep excavated soil on school property rather than haul it away.

The change orders are the first publicly disclosed cost additions to a $15 million project that includes a two-story addition to the high school featuring a secured entrance, five new teaching spaces and renovated administrative offices, as well as a separate district administration building. The district authorized up to $18 million in bonds to finance the work, which broke ground this summer.

Tuesday’s approvals allow district administrators to pay for work performed by general contractor E.R. Stuebner Inc.: relocating a water line that wasn’t where records showed it would be, rerouting subsurface stormwater pipes, replacing a deteriorated fire hydrant, and clearing vegetation and handling soil in an area behind the softball field designated to hold excavated material.

Clough told the board that before a shovel went in the ground, the design team used ground-penetrating radar, dye tracing through existing pipes and reviewed historical drawings to map what lay underground. None of it was enough to avoid surprises.

“We did everything we could to try to locate as many utilities as we could,” Clough said. “It turns out in the old days they didn’t keep very good records.”

Three of the change orders — totaling roughly $22,000 — grew out of a late decision to deposit excavated soil on school property rather than truck it to a licensed off-site disposal facility. Clough said that option would have run $50 to $70 per cubic yard, and that keeping the material behind the ball field saved the district several hundred thousand dollars.

The savings, however, came with a cost. Documents to support on-site storage were rushed out during the bidding process, Clough said, and some details were missed in that rush, leading directly to several of the change orders now before the board.

A sharper line of questioning centered on the project’s survey. Rather than commissioning a full new topographic survey, the engineering team used a survey completed roughly seven years ago during a junior high addition and supplemented it in selected areas.

“At face value, a seven-year-old survey doesn’t sound like a bad idea to use,” he said. “But I wasn’t part of that decision. You’ll have to ask (Keystone Consulting Engineers) how that was done.”

Board member Rob Moyzan noted the district had previously replaced Barry Isett & Associates; the firm that served as engineer of record on the junior high project.

“If Barry Isett was so negligent in their job that we got rid of them, why were we using their data and not getting new data?” Moyzan, who was not on the board when the junior high project was completed, asked.

Clough said he could not speak to why the old survey data was carried forward. “Probably it was thought to save some money,” he said. “I think we’re later finding out it could have been more detailed.”

Director Earl Paules credited district facilities director Trahn Thompson with negotiating the change order totals down, approximately $2,000 off each one, by pushing back on billing he had witnessed firsthand.

“Trahn really stood up for the school district,” Paules said. “I was always wanting someone in that position to be able to stand up for us and argue the point.”

One example: a disputed charge for digging an excavation to access a water line that was already open when the repair became necessary.

“Why are you charging us for digging a hole when the hole was already dug?” Paules said. “Simple things like that, he watches for them because he’s here every day.”

The project carries a design and construction contingency of approximately $350,000 to absorb unforeseen conditions, and Clough said the design team is watching it closely.

“Obviously, we’re trying not to spend it,” he said.

He also noted that KCBA is not charging design fees on the change orders.

“Had these been included in the original job, you would get a fee on them,” he said.

The 5-4 votes had Earl Paules, Danielle Paules, Kris Schaible, Dr. Stacy Connell and Sherry Haas voting yes, while Brandon Mazepa, Erin Snyder, Moyzan and MaryJo King voted no.

A no vote, Clough said, would have put the district in a payment dispute with its general contractor in the middle of an active construction project with school starting days away.

The warning about future change orders was unambiguous.

“Until we can get out of this earth stuff, there are going to be issues that arise,” Clough said.

Despite the friction, he expressed confidence the project would be ready for students. Walking the site before the meeting, he said the east side appeared to be in solid shape.

“It looks like we’re going to be in pretty decent shape to open schools shortly and be safe,” Clough said.

Both projects are slated to wrap up for the 2027-28 school year.