HOUSTON -- A federal lawsuit claiming discrimination in a $805 million bond proposal was filed against the Houston Independent School District, KPRC Local 2 reported Monday.

Community leaders including U.S. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, state representatives Sylvester Turner, Harold Dutton and Senfronia Thompson and NAACP President Carol Mims Galloway held a news conference to release details of the lawsuit.

The group accused the school district of longtime discrimination against minority and low-income students.

"This is a fight for our children, for every one of them. We'd rather sit down and talk with HISD. They chose to go into the courtroom without giving anybody any notice," Turner said.

The lawsuit asks that enforcement of a court order allowing HISD to proceed with bond sales from the $805 million bond passed in November be stopped.

"Today marks the day that we say we've had enough we're not going to take it any longer," Dutton said.

"Today I come to serve notice to HISD that no longer will my child or any child in HISD be treated with such educational injustice," parent Ann Tillis said.

Before the election, the group claimed the school district did not give them proper input on how funds would be distributed.

The bond passed 51 percent to 49 percent.

Two days after the bond passed, HISD went to a judge in Travis County to validate the election. The district attorney said legal notice was posted and the election was ruled valid.

Unless the court orders an injunction, the school district will begin to build 24 new schools, renovate 134 schools, increase security and create science labs at every middle and high school.

"The voters of Houston have spoken and they want new and improved schools for their children," HISD General Counsel Elneita Hutchins-Taylor said in a written statement. "The courts already have spoken as well, ruling that HISD’s bond election was legal and valid. Now it is time to start the process of building and repairing schools for children as we focus on improving learning and as we strengthen our relationships with the community."

District officials said they are taking the lawsuit seriously, as they do with any lawsuit.

"This lawsuit is without merit and we will move right away to have it dismissed so that we can get on with the business of building schools for children," Hutchins-Taylor said.