The Inter-Mountain photo by Edgar Kelley Randolph County Board of Education members Janie Newlon, left, and Rachel Burns speak with Randolph County Schools attorney Jason Long at a public hearing held Wednesday night at Elkins High School.

ELKINS – One year and seven days after the Randolph County Board of Education first released information about an effort to close multiple county schools, the BOE voted Wednesday night to close Harman K-12 School and North Elementary School.

In a special hearing at the Elkins High School Theatre, board members voted 4-1 to close Harman, and 5-0 to close North. Board member Ed Daniels cast the sole vote against closing Harman, with Rachel Burns, Janie Newlon, Sherri Collett and Phil Chua all voting for the closures of both schools.

The closures and consolidations will take effect before the next school year. The students from the two closed schools will merge into Jennings Randolph Elementary School, Elkins Middle School and Elkins High School.

Before the hearing got underway Wednesday night, Superintendent of Schools Dr. Shawn Dilly, who proposed the closings and consolidation, pointed out that Randolph County isn’t the only county in the state closing and consolidating schools. He said 16 schools were closed in West Virginia 2024 and five this year, with 16 more proposed for closure.

Dilly said there has been a steady decline in students at the Harman school, noting there were 170 students at the school in 2013 and just 105 now. He added that North Elementary has gone from 283 students to 201 during the last decade, and that closing both schools will save the county approximately $1.7 million.

During the three-and-a-half-hour hearing, 16 residents, parents and students spoke in favor of keeping the Harman school open, including Keith Mathew, Dixie Lee Murray, Beth Henry-Vance, Rex Vance, Mike Ross, Shasta Arbogast, Sammy Roy, Lacey Mullenax, Jessica Pennington, Mary Kelly, John Kelly, Justin Murray, Dana Varner, Presley Pennington, Talitha Bucher and Trish Bucher.

Roy, who is a member of the Harman Fire Department, said he was concerned about children riding buses from Harman during poor weather conditions.

“Every decision we make has a consequence, whether it’s good or bad,” Roy said. “There’s a poem, not sure who the author was, but it says if I would have spoken up I could have saved a life that day. In this case, maybe it could save an injury or even a life if one of the school buses happens to wreck.

“We are putting a lot of kids’ lives in danger…There’s no child’s life worth losing going across these mountains. I know you have budgets to balance, but there has to be another way somehow…The decision to make tonight could save a kids’ life.”

Henry-Vance, who has two children currently attending Harman School, said, “The board has not been presented with accurate bus route times. The estimated times may be accurate for a car, but when it comes to driving a bus full of children on mountainous roads and making multiple stops, it will always take longer.”

Henry Vance said that her children return home for school each day at 3:03 p.m., a travel time of 11 minutes from the school.

“With the closure it will be 60 minutes or more one way,” she said. “That would be life-changing for me and my family.”

Ross, a longtime local businessman and former state legislator, said he has lived in Coalton the past 87 years and that he is a product of the Randolph County Schools system.

“I’m here tonight to oppose consolidation in the outlying communities,” Ross said. “You not only punish the kids and their parents, but you kill the communities when you do this. Randolph County is an unusual county – it’s the largest county in the state, over 1,000 square miles. What fits the smaller counties, doesn’t particularly work here in Randolph County.”

Talitha Bucher, a 9-year-old student at the Harman school, said, “Randolph County Board, you were balancing your budget with a surplus in the pre-COVID years. Can you take some time to just look at what staffing adjustments you made with your COVID money? Can you just adjust back to basics?”

After hearing the large group opposing the closing of Harman speak, Dilly said, “We recognize the challenges and the concerns related to transportation related to the proposal this evening. But we also recognize that there are very few options that we have as a system to achieve our financial goals, as well as what pieces can be moved around.”

Two Randolph County educators, Brittany McCray and Michelle Depp, spoke in favor of the closures and consolidations.

“We have a very rare window of time right now, where you as a board have to make a decision,” Depp said. “That window of time, once it closes, is gone. We have no other choices left after that window of time closes if a vote is not had. That window of time could be reopened because that decision could be rescinded in the event that some circumstance changes, some funding situation changes. But if you miss that window now, it’s closed and it can’t be revisited,”

Back in January, the BOE voted 4-1 against closing the Harman school. That plan, which was presented by Dilly, would have seen Harman K-12 School close and consolidate with Midland Elementary, Elkins Middle School and Elkins High School.

Dilly’s new proposal was brought forth after Randolph County Schools was placed in a State of Emergency by the West Virginia Department of Education in June. The school district will remain on probation for a total of six months, and faces the possibility of a state takeover if it cannot create a balanced budget or show progress by December.

There will be a public hearing for the closing of Pickens K-12 School on Tuesday, Oct. 14 at 5:30 p.m. in the EHS theatre. Those wishing to speak must sign up between 5 p.m. and 5:30 p.m. A final vote on the closings will be made by the BOE at 7:30 p.m.

If that proposal passes, students from Pickens will be merged into George Ward Elementary and Tygarts Valley Middle/High School.

There will be a third and final public hearing, for the closure of Coalton Elementary and Midland Elementary, on Oct. 28 at the EHS theatre beginning at 5:30 p.m. A final vote will be made by the BOE at 8:30 p.m.