Katie Koch, of Butler, picks up a chest for sale Tuesday, Oct. 3, at the former Butler Middle School. Eddie Trizzino/Butler Eagle

Katie Koch’s grandmother was in one of the first classes to attend school at the building most recently known as Butler Middle School, and her daughter was in the last fifth grade class to “graduate from” the building before it closed in 2022. Her mother also went to school in the building.

Koch went to the school Tuesday, Oct. 3, to look at the items for sale to clear out the building after it had been sold and left with an old chest, among other furniture.

“It’s a nice case, maybe I could put some handbells in,” said Koch, of Butler. “My grandma was born in 1921, so she graduated high school in the late 1930s, early 1940s.”

The former junior high school and former middle school has been sold to Pittsburgh Gateways Corporation, a business management consultant, and the school district scheduled a sale Tuesday and Wednesday to dispose of excess items. Butler Area School District superintendent Brian White said the district was able to move many items and pieces of furniture into other schools, and the remaining items were intended to be sold.

Objects being sold include teachers’ desks, student desks, file cabinets, chairs, carts, tables, computer carts and more. Items ranged in list price from $1 to $5. People could walk through the classrooms in the building to look at and pick up the things they wanted to buy.

White said items not sold will be scrapped, and the district has a few pieces of equipment administrators plan to sell online. Other items not included on the list that people found at the school could be purchased, too; shoppers were encouraged to “make an offer” on items such as exercise equipment, bookshelves and teaching supplies.

Jean Fowler, of Butler, picked up a few chairs and a bookshelf at the sale. She said she was working with the Golden Tornado Scholastic Foundation’s weekend backpack program and decided to stop by the middle school to get some furniture.

“You always need storage, and you always need chairs,” Fowler said. “Why not come?”

The sale at the middle school continues from 9 a.m. until around 2 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 4.