The Butler School Board’s paid consultant has a home-grown rival.

In response to a recommendation to close as many as seven Butler School District elementary schools, a group of parents has organized to present an alternative consolidation plan.

The consultant, Pittsburgh-based Thomas & Williamson Program Management, is tasked with recommending how to make more efficient use of the district’s schools, which have an average occupancy rate of 55 percent. It proposes to close seven of the district’s 11 neighborhood elementary schools and to cluster all pupils grades 4-6 at the current junior high school.

The parents group, Butler Residents for Quality Schools, proposes instead to close only three elementary schools, plus the junior high school, and preserve the kindergarten-through-sixth grade community school model.

Intensive study is evident in the residents’ 42-page report, “Our Schools Our Children,” which is available online at the group’s website, www.butlerk6.com.

The proposal’s introduction promises “a thorough, fact-based summary of an alternate proposal from a group of concerned parents and community members” who believe their plain “offers similar financial benefits as those currently under consideration from the Board, but offers substantially greater advantages from the standpoint of student safety, student education and overall family/community satisfaction.”

Butler Residents mailed the report to school board members and school officials ahead of Wednesday night’s board meeting with Thomas & Williamson, anticipating an opportunity to formally present and defend their proposal at the community forum.

That’s not what happened, unfortunately. Instead, Thomas & Williamson President Jon Thomas launched into analysis and criticism of the proposal. Thomas said the proposal’s estimate of $4 million in annual savings would be more like $2.5 million. The critique commenced before anyone from Butler Residents for Quality Schools got a chance to present their proposal.

That hardly seems fair. It’s a little akin to one youngster monkeying with another’s exhibit at the science fair.

It can’t be said whether the consultant acted voluntarily or under direction of school officials. But it is particularly disturbing that the parent group’s courtesy of mailing the proposal ahead of time was answered with a pre-emptive rebuke.

There’s a fortunate element, however. The community is watching. There were several hundred people in attendance at Wednesday’s meeting. They have access to the alternate proposal via Butler Residents for Quality Schools’ website, along with voluminous data supporting the group’s position on the community schools concept.

The public can judge for themselves that the parents group, their proposal, their website, conduct and intentions have been nothing but proper, even downright professional.

The public knows professional conduct when they see it, too. They should expect nothing less when it comes to major decisions that will affect their community for years to come.