Petition calls for BOE resignations
ELKINS — A petition circulating online expressing “no confidence” in the Randolph County Board of Education — following last week’s vote to keep the Harman K-12 school open – had garnered more than 500 online signatures by Monday afternoon.
The petition, on Change.org, calls for “the resignation of the complicit School Board Members who failed to perform their elected duties as a Board of Education,” explicitly naming the four BOE members who voted against closing Harman: Ed Daniels, Dr. Phil Chua, Dr. Sherri Collett and Janie Newlon.
The petition was started by Randolph County teacher Ross Ware, who is also the athletic director at Elkins High School.
“Those Board members voted to put Randolph County Schools in the red financially and that is against code,” Ware told The Inter-Mountain on Monday. “They had alternative ways they could have voted to not put us in that situation.”
On Jan. 8, the day after the BOE voted 4-1 to keep the Harman School open, Superintendent of Schools Dr. Shawn Dilly announced that the proposal to also close the Pickens K-12 school had been withdrawn. Dilly had proposed closing the schools in October.
“After they voted on Tuesday night I had some conversations with other people and did some research,” Ware said Monday. “They could have voted to close those buildings, which wouldn’t have put us in the red. And then worked to find more funding like they are trying to do now. And then rescinded that vote to close later and kept those buildings open once they found the money.”
BOE President Rachel Anger, the lone board member who voted to close the Harman school, is not being targeted by the online petition.
A “Rachel Anger” is listed as one of the signatures on the petition, but Anger told The Inter-Mountain Monday that she herself had not added her signature.
“I did not sign it,” Anger said in an email response to The Inter-Mountain Monday. “I stand by my original vote, but respect why others voted differently. We are facing some big cuts and decisions now.”
The petition accuses the other four BOE members of failure to make an effort to balance the budget when a clear solution was available; creating the potential for unsafe learning environments; creating a lack of educational opportunities for Randolph County students; and the potential loss of resources to mitigate social and emotional issues, the potential loss of school nurses, and the potential loss of extracurricular activities.
Chua told The Inter-Mountain Monday that he understands the sentiment behind the petition.
“I agree with Ross (Ware) that it was a terrible decision to do, but unfortunately we were faced with two terrible decisions,” Chua said Monday.
“I voted for the one that I thought was potentially life-threatening to county students. I think that we are going to have to lean upon the state to help us out with this,” Chua said.
Ware said his petition is not seeking to somehow go back and close the two schools.
“This petition has nothing to do with Harman or Pickens,” Ware told The Inter-Mountain. “It’s not trying to go back and close those buildings. We are trying to replace people who are sitting on the Board of Education and said they are going to listen to the people who voted for them and do what’s best for Randolph County. And that’s not what they did.”
Ware said he was upset that the BOE didn’t have a backup plan in place before voting to keep the school open.
“It can’t vote the way they did without having a backup plan ready to go and they didn’t,” Ware said. “I put this petition together, but I’m speaking for every employee in Randolph County. I’m speaking for every student in Randolph County because every teacher is going to have to sacrifice or lose their job.
“There are going to be 32 positions we have to cut now to even come close to balancing the budget. Even Harman and Pickens, those schools are going to lose a teacher or somebody in their buildings with this vote.”
Ware pleaded with the BOE during the Jan. 7 hearings to close the schools so that teachers’ jobs in the county could be saved.
The Randolph County Board of Education will meet today at 5:30 p.m. at the Elkins High School Auditorium.