The Inter-Mountain photos by Edgar Kelley Elkins HIgh School Principal Carla Lambert speaks to the Randolph County Board of Education Tuesday night during the BOE’s regular meeting. She was joined at the podium by her daughter, Maddie, a student at EHS.

ELKINS — Elkins High School principal Carla Lambert and several teachers asked the Randolph County Board of Education for answers during a meeting Tuesday night.

An emotional Lambert spoke during the public comment section of the meeting, telling the BOE and Superintendent of Schools Dr. Shawn Dilly she was there to advocate for the students who don’t have parents or guardians to advocate for them. She was joined at the podium by her daughter Maddie, a student at EHS.

“First I want to address you as the mother of Maddie, because I feel like being a parent to this girl is the most important job I have right now,” said Lambert. “Maddie is a junior student at Elkins High School, she has attended Randolph County Schools her whole entire career. She has done very well academically and she has extremely high aspirations as do many of our students here in Randolph County. We are here to ask you, what is next?”

Lambert said if the BOE goes through with making the many cuts Dilly has said will have to be made in order to balance the school system’s budget, her daughter and other students will be affected negatively. 

“I, as her parent, cannot let her education be compromised,” Lambert said. “I grew up in Webster County, grew up poor, and learned at an early age that education was my key to getting out. And that’s exactly what I want for Maddie, that’s what all parents should want, a better opportunity and a future for their children.

“If she wants to be able to take calculus as a senior, I want to give her that opportunity. If she wants to take dual credit human anatomy, dual credit English, history, computer science, those are all opportunities that I want to give her. I was given those opportunities at Elkins High School 30 years ago and I feel like we are going backwards in our course offerings, which is sad.” 

At last week’s BOE meeting, Dilly presented a breakdown of where cuts might have to be made. He said roughly 32 positions must be eliminated in order for the county to meet the budget requirements for the 2025-2026 school year.

Dilly said some of the positions that will likely be cut include nurses, career and technical education, math teachers, counselors, librarians, art teachers, physical education teachers, and science teachers.

“For the first time in my career, as a principal, I do not know what to tell parents when they ask me questions about classes being offered for next year, block versus period schedule, what’s going to get cut, will sports have to fund their own coaching salaries?” Lambert said

She asked what will happen if the 32 cuts are made and enrollment drops drastically.

“Where does that leave us for next year?” Lambert said.

“Elkins High School has lost something every year since 2015, a teacher, cook, custodian, something,” she noted. 

Ellen Shepherd, a Special Education teacher at Third Ward Elementary and a parent of two students in the school system, spoke about potential cuts to counseling positions.

“As a teacher I can’t teach a student who isn’t regulated, who is hungry, who is tired, who isn’t safe. I can’t teach them,” Shepherd said. “I have spent days and years working with children to understand that school is a safe space. Having social workers has been a huge difference… As kids are coming to school, their social and emotional skills are lacking more and more. And if we don’t have counselors there to help teach those lessons, it’s going to be a challenge.”

“My school has medically fragile children, we have had code blues that are life threatening,” said Shepherd. “I can’t imagine what would have happened if we didn’t have a nurse in our building.”

She also talked about cutting coaches positions.

“I know you don’t save a lot of money on that one, but let me tell you the impact coaches have had on my children,” Shepherd said. “My son is very bright, but not very organized. He is not somebody who is going to go the extra mile. That was until he met Mr. (Jay) Auvil in seventh grade, who was not only his science teacher but his football coach – I saw a change in him.

“This year he had coach (Chad) Ware and you guys all saw what Coach Ware did on the football field. You did not see what Coach Ware did for the children. My son played JV, he didn’t play varsity a lot. But that didn’t matter, he was treated like an equal member of that team. He learned respect, empathy, grit, accountability both in the classroom and on the football field.

“His transition to Elkins High School was seamless and was something I lost sleep over, many, many nights because he is the kid I check live grades every night… He didn’t have any missing assignments this year because Coach Ware checked on them. These coaches don’t get anywhere what they should get paid and that’s not going to make a big difference if we take that money back. But it will make a huge difference if some of these coaches can’t offset that little bit that they get.”

On Jan. 8, the day after the BOE voted 4-1 to keep the Harman School open, Dilly announced that the proposal to also close the Pickens K-12 school had been withdrawn. Dilly had proposed closing the schools in October.

These actions have led to questions concerning the county’s budget deficit problem moving forward, with Dilly saying up to 32 positions may have to be cut.

Officials say approximately $2 million will be needed to fill the budget shortfall.

The next Randolph County Board of Education meeting will be held Feb. 4 at 5 p.m.

Ellen Shepherd, a Third Ward Elementary School Special Education teacher, spoke Tuesday about how some of the proposed personnel cuts would affect students.