Meridian Elementary School was closed in May 2015 after the Butler School Board approved a district consolidation.

BUTLER TWP — The Butler School Board on Monday night unanimously approved the sale of Meridian Elementary School.

The building was closed in May 2015 after the board approved a district consolidation, a move that also closed three other elementary schools: Broad Street, Clearfield and Oakland.

The board approved the sale for $425,000 to a holding company called Sparks Holdings, owned by Michael Wright. He is the owner of 70E Solutions, a company that plans to expand its operations in the Meridian building.

Wright has plans to maintain the playground for community use, he said.

The approval gives authorization to the district solicitor to prepare a sales agreement, based on the contingencies provided by the buyer.

Wright’s offer includes contingencies that the building pass a routine inspection, is certified asbestos-free as of its last check, pass a termite inspection and the township approve its occupancy use.

This last contingency proved troublesome for Tom King, solicitor, since he said that is a process that might take years. For that reason, the sales agreement will include a clause that if the township has not approved Wright’s occupancy use by the time the sale is reviewed in court, Wright will have to decide to continue with the sale or not.

After the sales agreement is drafted, King can petition Butler County Court to hear the case and make a ruling on the sales agreement. The judge will have the final say in approving an appropriate buyer, and any other offers can still be made at the hearing.

The vote took place after board member Al Vavro motioned to sell Broad Street, Meridian and Oakland to the highest current bidders. That motion failed, leading to individual motions on certain buildings.

A motion to proceed with selling Clearfield Elementary School, which has no formal bids, was approved as well. For that, Superintendent Dale Lumley will continue to accept offers on the building and market the property.

A motion to sell Oakland Elementary School to the highest bidder, Monty Edgar from Woodbine Oaks at $363,600, did not pass. Edgar’s offer had no contingencies attached, according to Lumley.

Board member Jennifer Cummings, who voted against the sale of Oakland, said she would prefer keeping that building over others.

“(Edgar) doesn’t have any real plans for that space,” she said. “He’ll have his business in there, but as far as I can guess, it will probably be empty apart from that and whatever he can rent the gym out for ...

“If there’s any building that I want to keep open after this after-action review, it’s probably going to be Oakland because I think it’s one of our nicer elementary schools, and I think we could make use of that building if we need space in the long-term.”

Other board members, including President Nina Teff, voiced concern that the votes to sell happened before the final report from the After-Action Review Committee, which was created in December 2015 to determine the effects of consolidation.

“We haven’t had a conversation as a committee that walks through, ‘what’s the data we’ve seen, what are the observations that we’ve made, what are the conclusions that we’ve drawn and are there any other contingencies that we think we need to plan for based on what’s going to happen to our district in the future,’” she said.

Despite that, Cummings said there were numerous factors that played into the sale of Meridian before the others, without the results of the review.

“None of us can foresee a case where Meridian will be needed in the future,” she said. “It’s the oldest building, it requires the most updates and there are two schools very near to it: Connoquenessing and Northwest. Plus, we had a strong buyer that we did not want to lose.”

Vavro stressed that selling the schools is a stronger benefit to taxpayers and students, since money from the sale of Meridian can assist with providing more educational resources.

“It’s fiscally responsible to (sell the schools),” he said. “ ... I just don’t think (fixing any consolidation issues) is going to require opening a building.”

The board will vote on the sale of Broad Street and Oakland schools at its next meeting, 7:30 p.m. March 21 at the Harriger Educational Services Center, 110 Campus Lane.