A zoning hearing on Tamaqua Area School District's appeal of a notice of violation concerning the change in use of a former elementary school in Rush Township will be held next month.

Township solicitor Chris Riedlinger said Thursday that the matter will go before the township's zoning hearing board at 6:30 p.m. Nov. 9 at the township municipal building.That comes after an injunction request filed last month by the township to prevent the district from changing the use of the former Rush Township Elementary School in Hometown to an academy was rebuffed.The injunction request supervisors filed with Schuylkill County Court to prevent the district from changing the use of the former school to an academy was declined.Last month, district Superintendent Carol Makuta said the facility - now known as The Rush Building - is a K-12 setting that offers alternative education, regular education, special education, and school to work programs.Prior to the end of last school year in June, Makuta said the district had used the school to educate students in kindergarten and first grade, which had been the case since 2011.Before that, students in kindergarten through fifth grade attended, and before that, it was kindergarten through sixth, she said.Makuta said the students who had attended Rush Elementary now attend Tamaqua Elementary School.She said that Tamaqua Elementary last year had been configured to grades 2-5. This year, it's been configured to K-5, Makuta said.The district has been affiliated with Behavioral Health Associates of Lehighton "for at least five years," Makuta said.The township said the school's property, located at 50 Meadow Ave. in Tamaqua, is an R-4 zone, meaning a school is a use permitted by special exception, but not by right.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 has argued that any change to that 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.In July, the township's zoning 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.The district has asked the PDE to allow it to change the school to an academy.