ELKINS — The Randolph County Board of Education approved the first makerspace initiative to be placed at two middle schools in the county

At this week’s BOE meeting, Board members unanimously approved the initiative planned at Elkins Middle School and Tygarts Valley Middle School.

A makerspace is a creative learning environment that provides students with opportunities to explore, build and create using a wide range of materials and tools.

The cost is $96,250 for each school, which includes delivery, installation and staging of all items included in the initiative.

The initiative is coming at no cost for Randolph County Schools, however, as a private donor has provided the money for both schools.

“The first makerspace initiative came from a benefactor who came to us with a private donation,” Dr. Shawn Dilly, the superintendent for Randolph County Schools, said during the meeting. “He wanted to ensure that our middle school programs had available, basically STEM opportunities for students where they actually have the opportunity to work with things like 3D printers, robotics and a variety of other applications.”

Dilly said he was excited about the opportunity to bring the programs to EMS and TVM/HS. 

“We are excited about what this is going to do for us, and we hope this is the first of many donations that can help us continue to advance some of our goals and efforts to support STEM and other initiatives in the district,” he said. “The person who donated the money has requested to remain anonymous and I want to thank him for helping improve our system.”

BOE member Sherri Collett inquired how the makerspace would be used.

“Are they going to be used in classrooms, clubs, or what?” she asked Dilly.  

Probably a little bit of everything,” he replied. “We haven’t worked all the details out yet, but ultimately can it be used as both. Kind of like a lab space that can be checked out…

“We are working with the first makerspace to also do some of the training and establish some of the aspects of how we will integrate it into the classrooms.”

BOE President Rachel Anger said “a lot of kids excel at the kind of hands-on learning” offered in programs such as makerspace.

Dilly agreed, saying, “The hands-on, problem-based approaches are very, very helpful. This will allow our teachers to have access to the newest labs in those two schools.”

The superintendent said he is wanting to explore the many different avenues having to do with makerspaces and hopes to get the program established sometime this year.

“If we ever have the resources, I’d love to do it in every elementary and high school as well,” he said. “Because this is really a critical component of ensuring students have future ready competencies, as I would refer to them as.”

Dilly added that no bids went out for the project because the donor wanted a specific company to do all the work.

The next BOE meeting is set for April 22 at 5:30 p.m. The meeting will be held in the Elkins High School theater. The BOE is expected to vote on Dilly’s RIF (reduction in force) recommendations during the meeting. That vote was tabled last month.