Palmerton to expand size of school’s music room

The summer of 2019 could end on a high note for the Palmerton Area High School music department.

That is the latest projected date for completion of renovations to the school’s music room, should Palmerton’s school board move forward with the project in the coming months.

During a presentation at Tuesday night’s board workshop, Mike Kelly of KCBA Architects outlined a proposal that increases the size of the room from 1,200 to 1,700 square feet.

“You want volume and space when it comes to instrumental music rooms,” Kelly said. “This plan drastically increases the space and also essentially raises the ceiling to help provide acoustical absorption.”

Kelly said the current acoustic material is “dated,” causing the room to “not perform as well as it could.”

“We’ll bring in some updated attributes,” he added. “Because the space is shared between an orchestra and a band, we think more elbow room and more storage space for concert and marching equipment is going to be a big benefit.”

The district is still looking at several potential options that would narrow down the scope of office space, a practice room and storage areas.

Kelly said the district’s maintenance staff has already said they are willing to part with a room that would become a changing room to the back of the stage.

Palmerton Superintendent Scot Engler said the district originally thought it could get the project done this year as a change order to the current junior high addition project.

“We wanted more voices and more input as far as the design goes, and for that reason we thought it would be beneficial to slow it down and bid this as our own summer project for 2019,” Engler said.

The music department, he added, has been understanding of the schedule and has shared positive input and ideas for the project.

Upgraded facilities would be another notch for a band program continuing to gain popularity in Palmerton.

In four years, the high school band has gone from 11 members to 22 and now 45, not including silks,” Engler said.

“They have definitely lived up to their goal of rebuilding the program,” he added.

Kelly said after the music department and district administration have finalized an option they are comfortable with, KCBA will bring a more detailed package before the board for a vote.