A lawsuit filed Friday against the Butler School District and its board seeks an injunction to halt the sale of four recently-closed elementary schools until newly-elected board members take office in December.

The suit was filed in Butler County Court by school board member Bill Halle and attorney Leland Clark.

Both Halle and Clark are among the five school board candidates who are on both the Republican and Democratic ballots in the Nov. 3 election.

The new board members will take office early in December. Those five members would be in the majority on the nine-member board.

Clark said that the suit seeks to stop the sale of the schools until the new board can reconsider the district’s consolidation plan.

“First, it will prevent the outgoing school board from recklessly selling the closed schools to the highest bidder with no input from the community,” the statement said. “Second, it will keep the closed schools in the possession of the district so that if the incoming board needs to make any tweaks or adjustments to the consolidation plan, it will have options.”

The board on Thursday night voted 7-2 to begin a sealed bid process to sell the closed schools. The bids will be accepted until Sept. 18, and the board may vote on Sept. 21 to sell them, the lawsuit said.

“The current board is attempting to push the sale process ahead hastily, recklessly attempting to sell the schools to the highest bidder,” the suit said. “They are leaving almost no time for the community to have any input on the sale of the schools.”

Halle said there has been almost no involvement from the community in determining what to do with the closed schools.

“There has been no comprehensive plan from the school district,” he said. “And the community hasn’t been involved.”

The four buildings are Broad Street, Meridian, Oakland and Clearfield elementary schools.

Tom King, solicitor for the district, said, “We were aware this was something that might happen.

He declined further comment.

Both Clark and Halle said the lawsuit will not affect this school year.