ELKINS — Randolph County Schools Superintendent Dr. Shawn Dilly announced Tuesday night which of the multiple school consolidation plans he has proposed would likely be most successful.

At the previous two Randolph County Board of Education meetings, Dilly proposed five separate scenarios for consolidating the county’s schools.

The school system was placed in a State of Emergency by the West Virginia Department of Education in June. The State of Emergency tag will remain in place for a total of six months, during which Randolph County Schools must create a balanced budget and come up with a progress update to present to the state BOE in December.

During Tuesday night’s BOE meeting, Dilly said, “Part of what I want to try to do is just show you part of what I am thinking, and why I’m thinking the way I’m thinking. I’m not married to this particular (reconfiguration plan), but this one meets the financial projections that we are talking about…

“When talking to our leadership team we feel that the last plan we presented at the previous meeting has the most merit in the sense that it achieves our financial goals and gives a few options along the way for consideration. We know that it is a drastic plan that nobody wants to do, but I also know that we have to do something to make this work in the best way possible.”

This reconfiguration plan would involve seventh- and eighth-grade students moving from Elkins Middle School to Elkins High School. Fourth- and fifth-grade students in Elkins would move to EMS, while fifth-grade students at George Ward in Mill Creek would move to Tygarts Valley Middle/High School.

“We should consider running a bond call if we want to build a ‘fourth through fifth’ school at the Midland location,” Dilly said. “This particular model doesn’t require us to have to do that, but it’s one of the advantages with it. We can run (a bond call) and if it’s not successful, it doesn’t kill the plan. We could also consider an excess levy, but I think a levy is probably out of the question at this point.”

The Harman and Pickens K-12 schools would both close under this scenario, as would Coalton Elementary, North Elementary and Midland Elementary schools.

“We would be looking at Harman closing and looking at the elementary students there being moved to Jennings,” Dilly said. “Harman fourth through sixth grade, and seventh through 12th grade moving to Elkins Middle and Elkins High. And we could provide a virtual facilitator and offer virtual school programming at a Harman location as well…

“When looking at Pickens, we’re looking at actually sending the elementary students to French Creek Elementary, Buckhannon-Upshur Middle School, and B-U High School (in Upshur County). That’s a much nicer, easier route, and safer route. We can also offer a virtual facilitator school program in Pickens, also.”

Dilly said another option with the plan would be the construction of a new Pre-K to third grade school, which could be built at the old Wimer Field. He also presented the board with a calendar that listed timelines of when things needed to be done this fall.

“We have to have a hearing for every single school, whether they are being closed or receiving students,” Dilly said. “We have to compile information in a format that the state department requires, with information from the community, and all the impact documents.

“It is going to be quite the stack of paperwork going to Charleston with all of these schools being impacted. The timeline is not in our favor, so we need to take advantage of the next couple meetings to get us pointed in the right direction.”

Dilly’s proposal has hearings scheduled each week through the entire month of September and for two weeks in October.

He said all of the paperwork having to do with consolidation needs to be sent to Charleston in November so that the state BOE has it before their December meetings. State BOE meetings are held on the second and fourth Tuesdays of each month.

“Some of the positives that can come with consolidation is the ability to make sure schools all have school counselors,” Dilly said. “We can also have PRO officers at each school, school nurses at each school, and social workers at each school. So these are things we could actually afford to do if we consolidate and do this properly. Art and music programs at each elementary school, imagine it, that would be fantastic, in my opinion.”

Dilly said consolidation would also lead to additional secretarial and administrative support at each school, additional secondary upper level courses, additional middle and high school CTE programs, and more.

“I really feel like $4.5 to $5 million is our goal (for cutting the budget) that we have to meet to really get ourselves outside of this struggling debt window,” Dilly said. “We don’t have all the financial costs together, but we didn’t really want to spend a lot of time developing a plan until we add a little more clear direction from this board. So that we weren’t wasting a lot of time, because we don’t have a lot of time to waste. As you’ve seen, the November deadline is pretty stark.”

Dilly and the Board agreed to continue discussions about consolidation during future meetings. The next BOE meeting is scheduled for Aug. 5 at 5:30 p.m.