BUTLER TWP — Butler School District solicitor Tom King will defend the district in a lawsuit filed in an attempt to halt the potential sale of four district elementary schools that closed in June.

King, of Dillon, McCandless, King, Coulter & Graham, was approved by board members Monday night to represent the district. King’s normal rate is $165 per hour. He will be working more hours for the district in defense of the suit.

“This money will be taxpayers’ dollars paying for this. Every dime,” said Al Vavro, school board vice president.

School board member Bill Halle and board candidate Leland Clark filed the lawsuit against the school district and members of the board on Aug. 7, the day after the district began accepting sealed bid offers for the potential sale of the Broad Street, Clearfield, Meridian and Oakland elementary schools.

Those schools closed in June after a consolidation plan was approved in May by the board.

Board members, with the exception of Halle, held an executive session Monday to discuss whether there should be outside council to represent the board.

“Since Mr. Halle is one of the directors, and the question was put to me whether we considered it to be a conflict. We considered (my representation) not to be a conflict because we represent the board as a whole, the district as a whole, not any individual director,” King said.

He said while it’s hard to say how much defense would cost, King said he expects it to be at least $5,000 to $10,000.

Halle wanted to clarify details of the lawsuit.

“The lawsuit has nothing to do with the anti-consolidation. The lawsuit is specifically to keep the district from selling the schools, and you could end it tonight if you wanted,” he said.

If the board would instead wait to sell the buildings until at least December, when several new board members would be sworn in, the suit could be dropped, Halle said.

The new board, which is expected to include four new members, should be allowed to decide the fate of the buildings “in a community friendly way,” Clark said.

In another action related to the consolidation plan, the board discussed the possibility of adding a stop to a Butler Transit Authority route in front of Center Township Elementary School. The district would pay the authority $3,150 to add a stop to its Clearview Mall bus route three times a day for the 2015-16 school year.

Parents at community meetings have expressed concerns about some Broad Street Elementary parents without vehicles having trouble picking up their children at Center Township Elementary during the school day in an emergency situation.

The majority of former Broad Street students will be sent to Center Township under the consolidation plan. Most families with students at Broad Street had walked to school.

A vote on that issue was tabled until the Sept. 14 board meeting.

The board also:

n Approved a contract with the First United Methodist Church of Butler to allow parking spaces for parents at Butler Middle School during the school year. The church will be paid $2,250 for the school year.

While the church parking had been used in the past by those at the school, this is the first formal agreement, board member Don Pringle said.

n Approved buying a CNC Machine for $7,575 and laser engraver for $7,900 to be used for the middle school STEAM Program, which stands for science, technology, engineering, art and math.

CNC Machines use computers to control machine tools. The equipment is used with 3-D design and laser engraving design projects in technology education.