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 and Graham, was approved by board members Monday night to represent the district. King’s rate is $165 per hour.

“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 to potentially buy 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, had an executive session meeting 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 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.