Rush Township has filed an injunction request with Schuylkill County Court to prevent Tamaqua Area School District from changing the use of one of its elementary schools.

Township solicitor Chris Riedlinger informed the township's board of supervisors on Thursday that the township has asked the court to issue an injunction that would prevent the district from changing Rush Township Elementary School in Hometown to an academy.Riedlinger said the hearing on the township's petition is scheduled for 10 a.m. Sept. 4 at the Schuylkill County Courthouse.As part of its petition, the township asserts that the district is the owner of the school located at 50 Meadow Ave. in Tamaqua.The township's zoning ordinance designates the area where the parcel is located as an R-4 zone, wherein a school is a use permitted by special exception, but not by right.The township has acknowledged that the district's use of the parcel as a school predates the enactment of the township's zoning ordinance, thus making the district's use of the parcel as a school a nonconforming use.The township is arguing that under a section of its zoning ordinance, any change to a nonconforming use cannot be made unless a special exception is obtained from the township's zoning hearing board before changing its use, even if the use is being changed from one nonconforming use to another nonconforming use within the same classification.The district has not obtained a special exception for its proposed change of use.Last month, the township's zoning hearing board met to consider the district's appeal of a notice of violation issued by township zoning officer Bill McMullen.The township contended that the district's proposed use of the school did not comply with zoning regulations.Following testimony, the board unanimously voted to withdraw the violation.Before the end of the school year in June, the district had used the school to educate students in kindergarten and first grade.The district hoped to forge an agreement with Behavioral Health Associates of Lehighton, which provides educational services to students who need an alternate to regular education due to special needs.It has asked the state Department of Education to allow it to change the school to an academy.