A change in phone service providers could be in the future for Lehighton Area School District.

The district’s finance committee discussed a proposal Monday night from PenTeleData that would save around $500 a month over what it pays now to two primary providers, Verizon and Windstream.

“This discussion really stemmed from the summer when we lost phone service for a few days,” LASD Business Administrator Edward Rarick said. “That makes a district very uneasy. Having two different providers, we weren’t getting a lot of answers as there was a lot of he said, she said as to where the problem was.”

Lehighton reached out to PenTeleData for an analysis of its system.

“Right now, between Verizon and Windstream, we pay $1,119.92 a month, and we’d be looking at just over $620 with PenTeleData,” Rarick said.

According to a letter from PenTeleData, the proposal to the district is for a primary rate interface with 76 direct inward dialing numbers and a block of 1,000 long distance minutes.

“I think one of the advantages of this is we would be going with one provider and it would eliminate some of that finger pointing,” Rarick said.

The proposal will be forwarded to the district’s full board of directors.

LASD gains $2.7M from state reimbursement