The Inter-Mountain photo by Edgar Kelley Randolph County Schools Superintendent Dr. Shawn Dilly, center, talks to the Board of Education Tuesday night. To his left is Director of Technology Rochelle Chenoweth-Baird, and at right is Executive Secretary Vickie Dewitt.

ELKINS — State officials will almost certainly become involved in the Randolph County school system’s operations due to the current budget crisis, Superintendent Dr. Shawn Dilly said Tuesday evening.

Dilly told Randolph County Board of Education members that the school system’s “forecast is pretty dark,” during the BOE’s meeting Tuesday night. “And I don’t believe there’s a path forward without state intervention of some level.”

During Tuesday’s meeting, Dilly and Director of Finance/Treasurer/Purchasing Brad Smith discussed the budget and scheduled a pair of special meetings with the BOE.

Dilly gave the BOE several dates to choose from for the special meetings. The Board decided the first one will be May 15, and will be used to address the budget and personnel. The second meeting will be May 29, which will be to approve the final budget and personnel actions. Both meetings will be open to the public.

“There’s a lot of questions about what level of state intervention goes,” Dilly said. “I think Mr. (Brad) Smith was pretty kind in his explanations on the budget and the budget forecast. I think in the subsequent meetings you’re going to see that that forecast is pretty dark. And I don’t believe there’s a path forward without state intervention of some level… Based on our preliminary look, the best case scenario is we’re about $1 million short.”

After the RIF (reduction in force) hearings last month — in which the BOE voted to terminate 29 professional staff positions and four service personnel jobs, and to save 13 professional staff positions – board members learned that some of the votes it made were against state seniority rules, which may force the BOE to rescind some of those decisions.

Dilly told the BOE that some of those voting issues will be addressed during the upcoming special meetings.

“We were hoping to bring back some personnel actions to try to help start cleaning up some of the elements of our personnel,” Dilly said. “Because the quicker we can get people back in place, the better.”

For his part, Smith told the BOE that he didn’t see any way that Randolph County Schools would not at least be placed on the West Virginia Board of Education’s “watch list.” He added that he plans to present the budget to the BOE, but because there are still many funding unknowns, he will not submit it to the state until the deadline date of May 30.

“We have to have certain publications done by May 30 with our budget,” Smith said. “I intended to give the budget to you tonight, but because so much information has been late in coming, I found it impossible to get it balanced in this time frame – I’m still working on it… There’s still so much in motion and I still don’t have anything on federal law. So everything that we’re trying to accomplish right now still does not include yays, nays or otherwise on a federal level, we have nothing.” 

Smith told the BOE he would highlight areas of the budget that couldn’t be changed, and would meet with BOE members to go over any concerns they may have.

“I should be able to have that (budget) to you early next week and I can highlight what are non-negotiable type items within that,” Smith said. “If you want to go line-by-line or want to talk to me in advance of the meeting (May 15), we can do that. But you are not going to officially approve it until the 29th.”

Board President Rachel Anger asked Smith to present the Board with the budget and said they would go over it. She added that some of the Board members may visit Smith if there were any questions or concerns.

The next regular Board of Education meeting is scheduled for May 20 at 5:30 p.m.