NEWPORT — The Newport School Board will meet Friday to discuss a recent letter from Selectboard Chairman Barry Connell telling the school district it must vacate the bus barn at the Department of Public Works by the end of the month.

Connell said in his June 8 letter that the approval of a petitioned warrant article by voters at the May 9 Town Meeting to allow the district to lease the bus barn for $1 for 99 years is “ineffective.” The article was approved 701-140.

“The article approved by the town meeting amounts to a gift of a town asset, which the town cannot authorize,” Connell wrote.

The school district has stored buses at the barn for decades.

At a Selectboard meeting in May, Town Manager Hunter Rieseberg said the town had a legal opinion, received before the April Deliberative Session, stating that the petition article was likely “unenforceable.” The opinion has not been made public.

The Selectboard and School Board were scheduled to meet June 8 to discuss a solution but on May 31, Rieseberg sent an email to SAU 43 Superintendent Donna Magoon telling her that the board would not have a quorum for that meeting. He went on to suggest a “working committee,” comprised of two members of each board, meet as a way to move the process along faster. Magoon said this week they rejected that proposal and have insisted the full boards meet in a public meeting.

Friday’s meeting begins at 6 p.m. in the SAU 43 offices at the Towle building, 86 North Main Street.