Education Minister Jamie Muir is asking three school boards to stop discussing school closures until his department can review the process for shuttering them.

Muir announced Wednesday that a team will review the Education Act and the conditions for closing schools. That team will consult with the public, then report back this summer.

Several rural schools around Nova Scotia are on the chopping block this year. Many people facing the loss of their community school argue the current rules don't accurately reflect their school's worth.

"This review will tell us whether the mandated procedures for closing schools is the best one for students, the education system and communities," Muir said in a news release.

The announcement comes on the same day the Halifax Regional School Board is scheduled to vote on the closure of three of its rural schools.

School board staff recommend Upper Musquodoboit Consolidated and Eastern Consolidated be shut down in August. However, staff say a third school on the chopping block, Shatford Memorial, should remain open.

But Muir's request may have come too late.

"We certainly want to co-operate as much as we can with the school review," said board chair Wade Marshall, but "it's late in the process."

Marshall said he still doesn't know what board members will decide to do.

The Cape Breton-Victoria and Chignecto-Central school boards are also considering permanent school closures.

Just last week, Muir dismissed a call by the NDP to impose a two-year ban on school closures, saying he wouldn't interfere in a school board process that allows for a full debate.