Board members in Lehighton Area School District got their first look Monday night at a proposed design for a $34.5 million primary elementary center that would house all of the district's K-5 students.

Mark Barnhardt, of EI Associates architectural firm, unveiled the layout of the 146,000-square-foot building after district officials took around a dozen tours of similar buildings around the state."There is still a lot of stuff we haven't even gotten into inside yet, but we are at a point where we can submit the design to the state and start to plan development and paperwork to be reviewed by the borough, county and state," Barnhardt said.The building would be set up with the K-2 primary classrooms on one end of the building and the 3-5 elementary classrooms on the other side. Core areas would be centrally located, Superintendent Jonathan Cleaver said."It's very distinctly two schools separated by core facilities," Barnhardt said. "The primary center has four more classrooms due to class sizes being smaller than at the elementary level. It's not closed off between the schools. Parents who have a child in both schools would be able to freely go from one side to the other."FlexibilityOne of the unique aspects of the building, Cleaver added, is the flexibility it gives the administration and staff."We have support classrooms that can be divided with a folding wall or opened up into a full classroom," he said. "Even the bus and parent drop-off and pickup areas were designed with flexibility in mind."The gymnasium, stage and cafeteria would be back-to-back-to-back in the school."If we have a performance on the stage, you will be able to close that stage off and seat people in the cafeteria area and still have full gym classes," Cleaver said. "Or it could be the opposite if we wanted to close off the other end and have a full assembly, we wouldn't impact lunch setup. We don't have that kind of flexibility now."Two large group instruction rooms would seat 100 students.The building would likely have one media center with separate reading and instruction areas for the primary and elementary students.According to Cleaver, the 1,300-seat gymnasium is being designed as a competition facility, meaning it could host Lehighton athletic events."If the district decides to go that route, it could," Cleaver said. "It meets all the requirements to host basketball and volleyball games, things like that. The biggest thing though is that we could have building-wide assemblies and get everyone in their nicely."Needs of studentsBoard member Larry Stern commended the district's design committee, made up of teachers, community members and other district staff, who helped formulate numerous layout ideas during the process."They put in a lot of hours and came away with a building that I think would suit the needs of our students," Stern said.Two teachers spoke Monday in support of the elementary center.Laurel Zimmerman, a Franklin Elementary third-grade teacher, said there is a lot of opposition to the project, but she feels the community needs the center to grow."There are people out there who think this is a wonderful idea and something that is much needed in our community," she said.The board has a tough decision ahead of them, noted Patti Ebbert, a Response to Instruction and Intervention teacher at East Penn and Franklin elementary schools."I just want you to think about the students if you decide to renovate," Ebbert said. "Shull-David is going to have 303 students this year. If you renovate, where are they going to go while the work is done?"Though a design is now on paper, board member Rocky Ahner said he remains concerned about other issues, such as the results of a traffic impact study. The study is completed and currently being reviewed by the state."What happens if the state tells us we have to change something?" Ahner asked. "We might be designing a building that may have to be altered."Tim Tkach, Lehighton director of curriculum, instruction and grants, said a singular elementary facility would help with the distribution of Title I grant funding.Grant money is based upon the number of free and reduced lunch students at a certain school."Targeted Assistance" schools typically have less than 40 percent of their students receiving a free or reduced-price lunch, while "Schoolwide" schools have 40 percent or more getting the benefit. Schoolwide programs have more flexibility to use Title I funds to upgrade the educational program, while Targeted Assistance programs provide support to only students identified as academically eligible."Right now, we have to do the targeted assistance, but with one elementary center, we could go schoolwide and help everyone," Tkach said.The proposed cost of the building includes a $2 million Alternative and Clean Energy grant received by the district.Cleaver said the board will vote on submitting designs to the state on Aug. 24.