ELKINS — Randolph County Schools Superintendent Dr. Shawn Dilly has announced that the rescheduled public hearings and voting dates for the potential school closings of the Harman and Pickens K-12 schools will take place a month earlier than previously expected.

Seven hearing dates were scheduled to take place in November at various Randolph County schools, but Dilly and the Randolph County Board of Education agreed to postpone those sessions.

The public hearings, which allow residents to weigh in on the proposed closings, are held before a final vote hearing for each school.

During the Randolph County Board of Education’s Oct. 15 meeting, Dilly said he expected the new dates would be sometime in January, but at this week’s BOE meeting he announced the hearings and meetings will be a month earlier, in December.

“I wanted to give you an update related to the closure timelines,” Dilly told the BOE on Wednesday evening. “At the last meeting we discussed how the state board had approved a waiver and how they were suggesting it looked like two months. But the reality is, with the holidays and everything else, we are looking at one month.”

The first public hearing will be for the Harman School closing and will take place at Harman School on Monday, Dec. 9 at 6 p.m.

Public hearings will take place the next day, Tuesday, Dec. 10, concerning the other schools that will be affected if Harman closes. Those include: Midland Elementary (the hearing will be at Elkins High School at 6 p.m); Elkins Middle School (the hearing will be at EHS at 6:30 p.m.); and Elkins High School (also at EHS, at 7 p.m.). 

The BOE will vote on whether to close Harman School that same evening, at 7:30 p.m. at Elkins High School.

The first public hearing concerning the closure of Pickens School will be on Monday, Dec. 16. That meeting will take place at the school and will begin at 6 p.m.

The following day, on Tuesday, Dec. 17, the other schools that would be affected in the potential Pickens closing will be the subject of public hearings at Tygarts Valley Middle/High School. George Ward is first on the list and will begin at 6 p.m. A public hearing for Tygarts Valley Middle/High School will be at 6:30 p.m.

The BOE will vote on whether to close Pickens School at 7 p.m. at Tygarts Valley Middle/High School. The BOE’s regular meeting will follow at 7:30 p.m.

The next regular Randolph County Board of Education meeting will be on Nov. 19 at 5:30 p.m.