Closure hearings for Harman, Pickens to take place despite the weather
ELKINS — Randolph County may see up to a foot of snow by Monday, but that won’t be enough to postpone the public hearings and the Randolph County Board of Education vote to close Harman K-12 School, which are all scheduled for Monday evening.
The Inter-Mountain called the Randolph BOE office Friday afternoon, asking — if classes are canceled for the county schools Monday due to the weather — whether the hearings will still take place. A BOE representative said, “Absolutely.”
“We intend to move forward,” the representative said, confirming that Monday’s public hearings will take place regardless of the weather.
The National Weather Service has issued a Winter Storm Watch for Northwest Randolph County, including Elkins, from Sunday morning through Monday evening, with up to 12 inches of snow possible and winds gusting up to 45 mph.
Gov. Jim Justice has declared a state of preparedness for all 55 West Virginia counties prior to the weekend’s projected winter storm event.
The public hearings and votes on Randolph Superintendent of Schools Dr. Shawn Dilly’s proposal to close the Harman and Pickens K-12 schools were originally set to take place in November, but were than rescheduled for December.
Three days before the first scheduled hearing, in early December, Dilly announced that the entire hearings and votes schedule had again been pushed back, this time to January. Dilly noted that some residents had raised concerns about the notification requirements related to posting the hearings information.
On Dec. 20, a group of community and business leaders met with Dilly to discuss alternatives to closing the Harman and Pickens schools, and to ask that any decision on the proposed closings be postponed for a year.
Davis Health Systems Interim CEO Mark Doak helped organize the meeting, and was joined by Robbie Morris, a Republican who was elected in November as an 11th District state senator, and Jonathan Kyle, a Republican who was elected to a 66th District House of Delegates seat on Nov. 5.
The Inter-Mountain called and emailed Dilly multiple times for a response to the group’s announcement that the meeting had taken place, but he did not respond to any requests for comment.
The first public hearing for the proposed Harman School closing, to allow Harman parents, staff, residents and anyone else who wants to offer comment on the proposal, will be from 5:30-8 p.m. Monday, Jan. 6. This hearing will take place at the Elkins High School auditorium, however, and not at Harman School, where it was previously slated.
Also changed is that, instead of taking place over two days, all the public hearings and votes to close each school will be done in one day, at the same venue.
The public hearing for those who wish to comment on Midland Elementary’s involvement in the proposed closure of Harman will run from 8 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. on Jan. 6. followed by a public hearing on Elkins Middle School’s involvement from 8:30 p.m. to 9 p.m., with the public hearing for Elkins High School ‘s involvement from 9 p.m. to 9:30 p.m.
Immediately after hearing four hours of public hearings, the Randolph County Board of Education will vote on whether to close Harman School at 9:30 p.m. Jan. 6. All the hearings and the vote will take place at Elkins High School.
Two days later, on Wednesday, Jan. 8, the entire process will repeat, this time in relation to the proposed closing of Pickens School.
The first public hearing, for Pickens, will be from 5:30-8 p.m. Jan. 8. It will not take place at Pickens School, as previously planned; it will now be held at the Tygarts Valley Middle/High School gymnasium.
The public hearing for those who wish to comment on George Ward Elementary’s involvement in the proposed closure will be from 8 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. Jan. 8. The public hearing on Tygarts Valley Middle/High School’s involvement will follow from 8:30 p.m. to 9 p.m.
The BOE will vote on whether to close the Pickens School from 9-9:30 p.m. Jan. 8. All the hearings and the vote will take place at Tygarts Valley Middle/High School.