The silver shovels were lined up and ready for the Northampton Area Middle School and Secondary Campus Renovation Project groundbreaking ceremony.

But it seemed all Northampton Borough Councilman Ed Pany had to do was raise his arms skyward and, like Moses parting the Red Sea, the ground would part, too.

Even so, shovels were put to the test for the $80.7-million project as Earth Day became earth-moving day along a grassy slope on the edge of Northampton Borough Park.

The nine Northampton Area School Board members stood along a fresh rectangle of dirt and on a blustery but sunny afternoon April 22, as history, decades in the making, was made.

"It's been 43 years since a new school was built," said Pany.

"We open a new chapter in education this afternoon a chapter of hope," Pany exhorted like a tent revivalist without a tent to an estimated 50 people shivering on folding chairs and bundled up in jackets. Winds gusting to 25 m.p.h. buffeted the crowd, making 55 degrees feel more like 40 degrees.

"Quite frankly, I can't even believe we're at this point," NASD Superintendent Joseph Kovalchik said.

"Over 30 years, we've been talking about constructing a school, whether the middle school or high school," Kovalchik said. "All good things take time."

Pany, a retired Northampton Area High School history teacher, traded quips with Kovalchik, a former student.

In those days, Pany joked, teaching was "just a blackboard and a textbook which I never used.

"When I was teaching, I could talk about everything from North Korea to Kmart," Pany said.

Pany, curator of the Atlas Cement Museum, wore a Hercules Cement Company jacket to honor Kovalchik's father, Joseph, who worked there and at Dragon Cement Co.

"Along with the board of education, the borough of Northampton has played a significant role," Kovalchik said of the project for the middle school, set to open in fall 2015.

In addition to Pany, borough officials included Northampton Mayor Thomas Reenock, Borough Manager Gene Zarayko, Assistant Borough Manager LeRoy Brobst, Borough Council President John Yurish and Borough Councilman Keith Piescienski.

Kovalchik thanked the owners of Atlas Machining and Welding Inc. for allowing the property to be used as a staging area for the construction project.

"The vehicles will come through the back of this property and will not interfere with the campus," said Kovalchik.

"I think it's also significant that the school is on the site of Atlas Cement Company," said Kovalchik, listing mill worker traits, including dedication, perseverance and perfection that have been the foundation of the Northampton school district.

"I"m sure that's going to be in the ground here," Kovalchik said of the attributes.

"The round building up there is inadequate, to say the least," said Kovalchik, gesturing to the old middle school. "The building itself will enable the community to grow. It will allow this community to grow into the 21st century.

"We are the Konkrete Kids. We're very proud of our past, but we're looking to the future, the 21st century."

"After many years of on-again and off-again, we are going to turn the first shovelfuls of ground. Of course, the high school campus is the ideal location for the middle school. Now the countdown for the new middle school begins," said school board member Jean Rundle,

"We've been through a lot through the years. That's history. We are today community supported. And we're going to do it," noted school board Vice President Jane Erdo,

"My only regret is that the staff of the middle school has had to endure so much. That's coming to an end," said Erdo.

"Everyone has been cooperating and everyone has been a part of it. Let's go Konkrete Kids," said school board President David Gogel

Pany said the first school was built in 1793 along Dewey Avenue. The first high school was built along Main Street. In 1910, a new school was built along Lincoln Avenue.

"A junior high school was built in 1926 – for $275,000," Pany said.

Before the dedication, Jay Clough, principal, KCBA Architects, said the footprint of the new middle school would extend approximately 75 feet from the former vo-tech building, which is set for demolition May 15, to the wall of the field house to about 30 feet from the old middle school, a relic of the late-1960s experimental architecture.

Overhead electrical lines along Stadium Drive will be relocated underground, said Steve Garner, D'Huy Engineering on-site coordinator.

Also attending the groundbreaking was M. Arif Fazil, principal, D'Huy Engineering Inc., project engineering firm.

The old school's three-pod design, resembling the outline of Mickey Mouse in aerial views, prevented the district from upgrading the heating, ventilation and air-conditioning system, electrical service and a leaky swimming pool.

The building's interior curved walls created blind spots for hall monitors, could not meet federal Americans With Disabilities Act regulations and could not be upgraded to meet contemporary school security requirements.

The new school is to include a swimming pool with two diving boards, cafeteria, media center-library and other amenities, including a central courtyard performance and teaching area, borough heritage wall panels and trophy cases, and a modern security system.

The school will accommodate 1,500 sixth-, seventh- and eighth-grade students. Each grade occupies one floor in the three-story building.

The vo-tech site will become a parking lot for vehicles of teachers and administrators, doubling as parking for those attending sports events via a new entrance to Al Erdosy Memorial Stadium.

Remaining contents of the vo-tech building are up for auction, 10 a.m.-1 p.m. April 26.

The stadium football field is being upgraded with artificial turf and a new perimeter track surface. There will be a new stadium concession stand near an improved main entrance.

The field house is to be demolished and replaced with a state-of-the-art facility.

Once the old middle school is demolished, a perimeter bus loop will be constructed for student drop-offs. A separate drop area will be available for parents transporting students. The bus loop will double as a parking area for those attending sports and after-school events.

The old middle school site will become athletic fields. Improvements will be made to the campus storm water system and electrical service.

Work on a new Stadium Drive, roughly from the site of the borough park tennis courts to the easternmost light standard in front of the old middle school, will begin this summer.

Fencing will cordon off the construction site April 29.

Clough said earth-moving will take place as part of site preparation. Landscape grading, approximately up to 6 percent, will be reduced. What's known as a "soil exchange" will take place, where "bad," or loose, soil will be replaced by crushed stone.

"It'll look like a quarry here for awhile," said Clough.

That's only fitting for a site that was once the location of the Universal Atlas Cement Company.