The Northampton Area School District Board of Education facilities committee is expected to recommend the demolition of Moore Elementary School. At the facilities committee monthly meeting held Sept. 15 in the Northampton Area High School library conference room, three members of the facilities committee, by consensus, backed demolition of Moore Elementary School.

The demolition of Moore is estimated to cost nearly $2 million.

Facilities committee members at the meeting were school Directors Joshua Harris, Ross Makary and Parker Flamisch.

“I’m more leaning toward demolition,” Harris said.

“That onetime cost is scary, but it’s closed,” Flamisch said.

“If we tear the building down, it’s done,” Makary said.

The NASD administration, with the approval of the school board, earmarked $2 million in the general fund for Moore Elementary School renovations.

The facilities committee is expected to make a recommendation concerning Moore Elementary at the next regularly scheduled school board meeting, set for 6:30 p.m. Oct. 13 in the NAHS auditorium, 1619 Laubach Ave.

A special school board meeting, planned for 5:30 p.m. Oct. 6 in the NAHS auditorium, is to interview, select and appoint a director for the vacant seat representing Region 3, Bath and Chapman boroughs and Moore Township. The application was posted Sept. 10 on the district website, nasdschools.org/article/2408217.

A decision to demolish Moore Elementary School would need to be made by the NASD school board. An up-or-down vote to demolish Moore is expected to be on the agenda of the 6:30 p.m. Nov. 10 school board meeting. Four options for Moore are expected to be presented at the Oct. 13 school board meeting.

NASD Director of Operations and Maintenance Jonathan Jenny presented the Moore options at the Aug. 18 facilities meeting and then reviewed them at the Sept. 15 meeting. The four options and annual costs, are:

1. Keep Moore open as is: $465,000

2. Close Moore, but maintain it: $40,000

3. Demolish Moore, but keep property: $1.9 million

4. Retain Moore for community use: $642,000

“Option one for me is completely off the table,” Flamisch said.

“I don’t see much of an option other than tearing it down,” Harris added.

“If we turn the heat down, it’s going to damage the building,” Makary said.

The Moore Township Athletic Association, which uses the Moore Elementary School gym for basketball games, could use a gym at another district elementary school, possibly East Allen.

Moore Elementary School closes at the end of the 2025-26 school year.

The NASD board voted to close Moore at its July 21 meeting, reversing a Jan. 13 meeting vote to renovate Moore for $51 million.

Moore Elementary School is on 17.75 acres at 2835 Mountain View Drive (Route 946), Moore Township, in the northeast of the 97.3-square-mile school district.

The Franklin Elementary School, Washington Technology Center and NASD Administration Building are to close and be sold after the 2025-26 school year. The technology and administration departments will relocate to the new East Allen Elementary School complex, Route 329 and Seemsville Road, which is set to open for the 2026-27 school year.

Moore was scheduled to close as part of the $75.8 million East Allen Elementary School complex.

If demolition of Moore is approved, requests for bids would be sought in November or December 2026. The bid for demolition would be awarded in January or February 2027. Demolition of Moore could take place in 2027.

Moore Elementary School, built in 1957, is a one-story building with a two-story classroom for a total of 97,600 square feet. There were additions and/or renovations in 1966, 1972 and 2001.

An estimated 200 people attended a town hall meeting April 4, 2024, in Moore to discuss its fate.

NASD Superintendent of Schools Joseph S. Kovalchik, who attended the Sept. 15 facilities meeting, said the district could consider keeping the Moore site for a new school or selling it if a more suitable tract could be obtained.

Kovalchik told a reporter for Northampton Press after the meeting that NASD redistricting information was expected to be placed on the district website Sept. 16.

Other facilities meeting agenda items included the NAHS stage, Erdosy Stadium turf field replacement and NAHS roof restoration.

The school board facilities committee next meets 6 p.m. Oct. 20 in the NAHS library conference room.