The Tamaqua School District has appealed a notice of violation served on it by Rush Township regarding the proposed use of Rush Township Elementary School.

Rush's Zoning Hearing Board will hear the matter at 6:30 p.m. July 28 at the township's municipal building.Kindergarten and first-grade students attended the school until June 2015. As the district finalized its budget for the 2015-16 school year, administrators decided to move those students to the Tamaqua and West Penn Township elementary schools.Students in the gifted or English as a Second Language programs would attend West Penn Township Elementary School.The district executed an agreement with Behavioral Health Associates, Lehighton, to use the school. According to its website, BHA offers alternative educational programs for students from grades K-12 with behavioral and special needs issues.After a special meeting last month, when the district formalized its agreement with BHA, district Superintendent Carol Makuta said that the students who would attend the Rush Township school would include students from the Tamaqua School District and other students from member schools of Schuylkill Intermediate Unit 29, which includes Mahanoy and Pottsville area.The notice of violation letter sent by Bill McMullen, Arro Consulting Inc., the engineering firm used by Rush Township, cites violations of two sections of the zoning code, Uses Permitted by Right (702) and Uses Permitted by Special Exception (703) within the R-4 zoning district.According to the zoning ordinance, schools are permitted in an R-4 district, but schools are further defined as "nonprofit" in a subsection 1631.In 2010 the district created a K-1 Primary Center at the Rush Township school, the smallest of the district's three elementary schools with a capacity of 300. The district conducted a financial study of the elementary schools, and opted to move those students into its other two elementary schools, and form an agreement with BHA to use the Rush Township building.The district has not finalized bus or teacher schedules, and will do so late in August, district administrators said at a June meeting.