A close vote Monday night gave two Lehighton Area School District administrators the ability to approve change orders up to $10,000 per line item for upcoming building projects.

The district's school board voted 5-4 in favor of the motion after lengthy discussion about whether the amount was too much or if the approval was even necessary at this point in the process.Change order approvals would be contingent upon the items being recommended by Quandel, a construction management firm hired by the district to oversee middle and high school renovations, a proposed K-5 elementary center, and construction of a multipurpose sports stadium adjacent to the district's administration building.The change orders, which can be approved by Superintendent Jonathan Cleaver or Business Manager Brian Feick, would be brought before the board for ratification at the next meeting.Board members Gloria Bowman, Wayne Wentz, Larry Stern, Andrew Yenser and Stephen Holland voted in favor of the authorization, while Rocky Ahner, William Hill Jr., Lori Nothstein and Hal Resh voted against it.Hill said $10,000 was a lot of money considering the district voted in December to hire Quandel, at a cost not to exceed $802,000, to oversee its projects."Their job is to protect the budget," Hill said of Quandel. "If they are thorough and do what they are being paid to do, there shouldn't be a lot of change orders. We're not even at a point where bids are ready to go out for any of these projects. I don't get this meteoric push."Bids for the middle and high school renovations, projected to cost just over $20 combined, not including any alternates, are scheduled to go out in May at the earliest.Feick said a plan for addressing change orders would be required when the projects are put out for bid."What we're looking to do is keep the projects moving," Cleaver said. "If a hole is dug the day after a board meeting and they hit a tank underground, I don't want to have to wait two weeks to get approval for $3,000 to remove the tank and keep going forward. That is the kind of situation we are trying to avoid. If it's a change order that won't stall the project and we can wait to bring it back to the board, we will."Before the vote, Ahner asked about putting a limit on how many times Cleaver and Feick could approve change orders up to $10,000 per month. He also asked about tabling the vote. The motion passed, however, without a limit being put in place."I'm demanding formal documentation at the board meetings, otherwise I'm voting no on every change order," Hill said.The board also approved payments of $10,793.29 to Barry Isett and Associates for the Warrior Stadium project, $29,166.55 to EI Associates for the middle school renovation project, $26,120.50 to EI Associates for the high school renovation project, $53.99 to Barry Isett and Associates for pump station improvements, and $11,000 to Quandel for management of construction projects.