BUTLER TWP — The Butler School Board has sold the closed Broad Street Elementary School to the Arc of Butler County for $400,000.

Monday night the board approved the agreement 7-2, with Bill Halle and John Conrad voting no.

This was the third offer from the Arc.

The first offer for $475,000 was approved by the board in November, but that agreement was overturned by the newly seated board in December, which requested a review of the district's recent school consolidation.

The Arc made a second offer for the building for $400,000 in June, and the board decided to table voting on the offer until August, giving time for for-profit businesses to make an offer on the building.

The Arc is a nonprofit organization and does not pay taxes. Some school board members oppose selling the building to an agency that does not pay property taxes. Butler Mayor Tom Donaldson also has that opinion.

Halle cited this factor as one of the major reasons why he voted against the sale.

“The city council is against the sale of this school to a nonprofit,” he said. “We're losing opportunities (by accepting the offer).”

Other board members like Neil Convery and David Korn said that it was irresponsible to turn down another solid offer.

Convery said, “I just think that this is an offer that we should not walk away from again. It's unfortunate that we weren't able to sell this building months and months ago. We could've had 75,000 more (dollars) than what we're getting now.”

The average appraised market value for the school is $456,500.

Broad Street closed after the consolidation in the summer of 2015, closing five elementary schools and reopening one, Center Avenue, as an alternative and special education facility. Those closed schools were all for sale.

Meridian and Clearfield sales have been approved by county Judge Michael Yeager. The Oakland school building sale will be heard Sept. 14 by Yeager.