The Inter-Mountain photo by Taylor McKinnie All Randolph County Schools bus drivers have received transfer letters from Randolph County Schools Superintendent Dr. Shawn Dilly. Hearings for the drivers have been set for April 22.

ELKINS — Hearings have been scheduled for all of Randolph County’s school bus drivers, who have been recommended to be transferred to different routes by the Randolph County Schools superintendent.

Dr. Shawn Dilly distributed letters to all the county’s bus drivers last week, making them aware that he was recommending changes in their bus routes for the next school year.

In the letter, sent out on March 31, Dilly wrote that the county was reducing in certain ways and reorganizing to meet the needs of students, including transportation needs.

“As you may be aware, the Randolph Boar Education is facing restrictions, including declining enrollment and potential financial constraints, all of which may impact personnel throughout the school system,” Dilly wrote in the letter. “As part of the reduction and/or reorganization, including changes necessary in bus routes to meet the system’s needs, I must write this letter to inform you that I will recommend that the Randolph County Board of Education place you on transfer for the 2025-2026 school year pursuant to West Virginian code.”

Hearings will be held before the Randolph County Board of Education on April 22, beginning at 5:30 p.m. That is the same meeting at which the BOE plans to take action on Dilly’s RIF recommendations for personnel. That decision was tabled at the March 27 BOE meeting. Hearings are scheduled for April 22 at the Central Office beginning at 5:30 p.m.

After the letter to bus drivers was shared anonymously with The Inter-Mountain this week, calls were made to Dilly seeking comment.

“No bus drivers are being cut, we are just basically providing notice under state policy to let them know their routes are going to be modified,” Dilly told The Inter-Mountain Wednesday. “We could actually use more bus drivers, so this is more of a procedural thing than anything.”

In the letter, Dilly said that bus drivers will remain employed in their classification (Bus Operator) under the same contract term, but that it may be necessary to modify their current bus routes.

“What we have discovered is that our high schools were not meeting the minimum requirements of the instructional minutes that we are required to meet under state policy,”  Dilly told The Inter-Mountain on Wednesday. “Therefore we had to make adjustments in the schedules at the high schools, which in turn affects essentially every school building and every driver because of how our transportation system works.”

Dilly said there are rumors circulating that the bus driver transfers are being done because of the proposed schedule and period day changes at the high schools.

“This has nothing to do with the schedule change at the high schools, I just want to clarify that,” Dilly told The Inter-Mountain. “It really only comes down to the instructional minutes that we are required to make.

“We are required to have 375 minutes per day at the high school level and we were finding that we were not meeting those requirements,” he said. “Therefore we are making adjustments to next year’s schedule to be able to make sure we are in compliance with the state requirements.”

Dilly said officials are looking for as minimal an amount of re-routing for its bus drivers as possible.

“We are talking to bus drivers as we are doing this to see if we can increase efficiencies in different areas,” Dilly told the Inter-Mountain. “Most of this stems from having to adjust everybody’s times from the high schools, because basically they feed in and out of the high schools, so it’s going to adjust everybody’s times.

“It could be as little as five minutes and could be as much as 20 to 25 minutes. We are going to try and make sure it is out for everyone to see once we get it all finalized. Part of the challenge is that we discovered this issue so late in the personnel season as well. That is why they are getting a later notice than everyone else.”

There will be a regular Randolph County Board of Education meeting held on Tuesday at 5:30 p.m. at the Central Office.