ELKINS — After reopening for classes Monday morning, Elkins Middle School — which was closed Friday after students were treated at Davis Medical Center Oct. 24 — will now “shift” to remote learning indefinitely, officials said.

Randolph County Superintendent of Schools Dr. Shawn Dilly announced on social media Monday evening that EMS will operate under remote learning protocol until further notice, after more reports Monday of students becoming ill and seeking medical treatment.

Dilly said a precautionary sweep conducted Monday by the Elkins Fire Department once again found no signs of carbon monoxide in the building, despite more reports of students getting sick and seeking medical attention Monday.

At about 4 p.m. Monday, Dilly posted the following to the Board of Education’s social media:

“Due to recent air quality concerns, Elkins Middle School will shift to remote learning while we complete a thorough review to ensure the safety of our students and staff. Since October 24, 2024, Randolph County Schools has supported five separate inspections of the facility, including a comprehensive assessment over the weekend. Each inspection with the Elkins City Fire Department, the Fire Marshal, and additional environmental experts confirmed that all carbon monoxide (CO) levels are within safe, normal ranges.

“We are working closely with health and safety experts to maintain the highest safety standards for our school community. We will share further updates as they become available.”

Dilly confirmed with The Inter-Mountain on Monday afternoon, before the remote learning announcement, that while the Elkins Fire Department did return to EMS that day to conduct a precautionary sweep, no carbon monoxide was found in the building.

“We are still a little bit, obviously, concerned about what we are seeing, though we have not  found any connection to the building,” Dilly told The Inter-Mountain. “At this point we’ve actually conducted five separate inspections, including one over the weekend where we did a much more comprehensive review and we haven’t found anything outside of normal or safe ranges that would explain what we’re seeing at the hospital.”

Elkins Fire Department Chief Steve Hines also confirmed with The Inter-Mountain that his department had returned to EMS on Monday and had not found any source of CO “that would expose anyone in that building.”

“We’ve checked every day and every day we’ve been there we tried to replicate the conditions,” Hines said. “Windows are shut, heat’s on and we still cannot find anything.”

Dilly said he met with Davis Medical Center Monday to try to understand the situation, as well as deal with what he called “misinformation” surrounding elevated levels of CO in students.

Multiple parents could be seen Monday afternoon taking their children out of the front entrance of the school, with some saying students were once again being tested for CO at the hospital.

“I decided to send Gavin to school today bc he said he needed to go bc he had a test, he just texted me and asked for someone to bring him medicine bc he has a headache but he doesn’t want to come home,” Moriah Bodkins posted to Facebook on Monday. “I’m making him come home. Clearly there is something that is still not right there!”

Bodkins added that her son’s CO level was reportedly 2.9.

Another commenter, Jessica Hutton, said the EMS school nurse had called and told her that her daughter was “complaining of her eyes hurting/burning and she has a headache.” Hutton later added that her daughter’s CO level was reportedly 4.6.

Dilly stressed to The Inter-Mountain, however, that misinformation was spreading online.

“We have a lot of folks panicking just because they saw the fire truck out front and there’s some false information being floated around on social media,” Dilly said. “So a lot of folks are coming to pick up their kids, unfortunately, than allowing them to finish out their day.”

On Oct. 24, reports started coming in of EMS students becoming ill after smelling an odor while at school and having to go to the hospital. That same day Dilly posted on social media, acknowledging that “fumes” from “a bucket of non-toxic glue” that was being used by “roofing contractors” at EMS caused the odor.

“The glue incident, we’ve been very open in discussing that, but that has been basically disconnected from the carbon monoxide concern through Poison Control and other experts,” Dilly told The Inter-Mountain Monday.

“We are not sure what is going on at this point, but I’m trusting our experts, our Fire Marshal, our Health Department as well as our experts from the Department of Ed. They’re all telling us that there should not be a concern and I am trusting those folks and believe they are going to honor what they’re telling us.”

Dilly confirmed to The Inter-Mountain that the roof contractors were working again on Monday, stating that they were only doing minor tear-offs on the roof. He also said school officials have been in contact with the roofing crew in regard to altering their schedule and ensuring that any work that could be hazardous is done after school hours.

When asked by The Inter-Mountain why the contractors were working during school hours, Dilly said it’s “not an uncommon practice throughout the state.”

“This is something that is pretty common practice because of the work hours, when it’s warm enough and when the sunlight is out enough to do those things,” Dilly said. “They’ve been there for nearly a month and there hasn’t been concerns until the unfortunate glue incident.”

“Ultimately, we are doing everything we can in cooperation with all the governing agencies and groups that are associated with these types of situations and right now, based on my conversations with them, we’re doing everything that we could be doing,” Dilly said when asked if there was anything he would like to say to parents and students at this time.

“There are things that were not clear what is going on, they could be environmental, they could be health related in other ways, so we’re going to continue to work with the hospital as well as the other agencies and groups to try to ensure that everybody’s safe.”