Dilly

ELKINS — Controversy over a county pay change that will affect Prevention Resource Officers in Randolph County schools has leaders in the school system and the county government exchanging stern words.

Randolph County Schools Superintendent Dr. Shawn Dilly said this week the pay change is “troublesome” and that he is “very disappointed” that the county commissioners aren’t considering the safety of students and educators.

In response, Randolph County Commission President David Kesling said that Dilly should not be “intervening in county policy changes.”

Last week, the County Commissioners voted unanimously to approve compensatory time policy changes to its employee handbook, which eliminated comp time for all county workers.

The change will directly affect the county’s three PRO officers, Rocky Hebb at Tygarts Valley Middle/High School, Daniel Pennington at Elkins Middle School and Ethan Carr at Elkins High School, who use the comp time for working at extracurricular and co-curricular school events.

Dilly spoke about the pay change during Tuesday’s Board of Education meeting.

“I want to bring this issue to your attention and this is one that’s troublesome, in my opinion,” Dilly told the BOE members. “I have spoken to the sheriff (Rob Elbon) and the county commission has basically voted to take away the comp time for our PRO officers. Ultimately, what that’s going to do is limit our ability to have PRO officers at our extracurricular and co-curricular events, which are going to be less safe because we are not going to be able to afford to pay the overtime wages of a program that was working excellent for us and we were having tremendous value of these folks.

“If you will go back to our recent events, part of the situation where the gun was brought to school, the rapport with our PRO officers is why that didn’t go as negative as it could have that day.”

Dilly praised the three PRO officers for their job performances at the schools.

“I cannot speak highly enough about our PRO officers and the program, but I’m very disappointed that they (County Commission) are not understanding how impactful this is to the safety of those particular events,” Dilly said. “And as you’ve seen, we’ve had those events to support some of our meetings because of threats made to us, myself and others…

“It’s really a troublesome thing and I’m going to try to continue to follow up and advocate for this. I know the sheriff and I talked quite a bit about this, and I’m disappointed that they aren’t thinking about how this particularly can impact those particular elements of what we do.”

BOE President Rachel Anger asked Dilly if it would be helpful for Board of Education members to write letters to the County Commissioners.

“I think it would be, and for anybody else listening tonight,” Dilly said. “We think there’s a lot of impact that maybe wasn’t considered… It’s really disappointing when we have had so many challenges this year and this has been one of the bright spots.

“I feel like even though we’ve had those challenges, we’ve had this program that has been really excelling in our schools and doing a lot of positive things well beyond the scope of what a PRO officer would normally do in those relationships. We really appreciate their work and the sheriff’s work and their continued collaboration with us. We’re hoping they’ll re-evaluate that particular decision.”

The Inter-Mountain reached out to Kesling for response to Dilly’s concerns.

“The superintendent has a job to run the county schools and the County Commission has a job to run the county government,” Kesling said. “It’s a decision that the County Commissioners made on the comp time, which just doesn’t affect the PRO officers, but all of the county employees.

“The PRO officers had 895 hours of comp time last year and we didn’t feel that was fair to other county employees. And we are not saying that the PRO officers can’t go and cover these events. There’s overtime they can use, and their schedules can be adjusted to where they can save time to do the extra-curricular stuff. It all comes down to scheduling.”

This week, Dilly provided The Inter-Mountain with a copy of a letter he has sent to the Randolph County Commission about their decision.

“I urge the Commission to reconsider due to the grave and far-reaching consequences this change poses for our school’s safety and operational integrity,” Dilly wrote in the letter. “More importantly, this decision compromises our ability to ensure a consistent law enforcement presence at school events.

“PRO officers are essential during the school day and at games, performances and other after-hours activities where large groups of students and families gather. Without the flexibility of compensatory time, we risk reduced coverage, diminished safety and increased avoidable incidents that could endanger our students and the broader community.”

On Friday, Kesling told The Inter-Mountain, “I find it interesting that the superintendent is now concerned with the safety of the students when he didn’t seem at all concerned about busing the kids from Harman or Pickens over those mountains during the winter.

“I have stayed out of any controversy that he has had with the Board of Education and the county school system. But when he starts intervening in county policy changes, that’s when I have to start expressing my concerns.”

Kesling added that, in the contract between the County Commission and the Board of Education, it states, “The PRO shall not be required to attend extracurricular activities, which are held beyond his/her regular workday, nor require the PRO to lead his/her jurisdiction, but the PRO shall have the option if they choose to do so.”