The Palmerton Area School Board Tuesday evening voted 7-1 to pursue a series of general obligation bonds to fund several projects in the district. The maximum principal amount of the debt would be $21 million.

The funds will be used to refinance the remaining amount of the district's current $1.6 million bond from 2010 and pay for construction additions and improvements to the junior high school and senior high school buildings.Any remaining funds would be applied to other capital projects and pay expenses related to the projects.The construction projects include establishing a cafeteria for the junior high school, a multipurpose turf field, installing air conditioning in district schools, and safety and security improvements in the high school, Towamensing Elementary School and S.S. Palmer Elementary School.Before taking a vote on the resolution, board member Barry Scherer asked how much money has been taken out of the fund balance.Business manager Matthew Sawarynsk said $400,000 will be used."The principal (in the fund balance) is only going to be $150,000 at the end of the month," Scherer said.Debt increaseThen Scherer wanted to know more about the amount of the payments if the district increases its debt.Scherer asked Wesley Hall, a senior analyst with Public Financial Management Inc. in Harrisburg, for a "ballpark figure" of the debt payment in 10 years."Are our debt payments going to increase?" Scherer asked.Hall replied, "Yes," but he couldn't say how much due to not knowing what the interest rate will be on the future bonds and other unknown variables.Scherer pressed him asking, "More than $1.6 million."Hall answered that it "would increase to $2 million and then level off at $1.7 million by the year 2036."He said it is designed to give the school district minimal principal payments upfront in order to reduce the debt impact.Scherer voted no to the measure.All of the remaining school board members voted yes, except for Susan Debski who was absent.According to Jonathan Cox, an attorney for Rhoads and Sinon in Harrisburg, two separate bonds will be pursued to cover the refinancing first, and then the construction projects.They will be taken out in November with closing coming in late December.In personnel issues, the board approved the long-term substitute teacher hiring of Melissa Maupin for Michael Lengle's physical science classes at the junior high school for the amount of $43,982.The board accepted the resignation of Rebecca Sabo as art club adviser.The board named Miranda Allen and Lyndsey Heinrich as art club advisers and Ashley Hummer and Katie McCarroll as environmental club advisers.