ELKINS — A total of 28 speakers came before the Randolph County Board of Education earlier this week to discuss possibly rescinding the BOE’s earlier vote to close the Harman K-12 School.

Twenty-seven of the speakers urged the BOE to rescind the Harman School vote Tuesday evening. Later in the meeting, BOE member Ed Daniels made a motion to rescind the Oct. 8 Harman School vote. The motion died for lack of a second.

Due to the number of people who signed up to speak during Tuesday night’s meeting, the BOE allowed each speaker just one minute and 30 seconds of time at the podium.

“In your Impact Statement, it says that Harman School offers a limited range of educational services,” Harman School teacher Tammie Swecker said. “And if (students) came over to the Elkins schools they would have access to other things such as special education. Well, we have two special education teachers who are fully certified, which is more than I can say for a lot of special education teachers in the Elkins area – they are not fully certified.

“They say we can get counseling, we have counselors in Harman. Health services? We have a school nurse, although she is not there all the time. And specialized staff? Well, if by specialized staff you mean music and art, which our children are deserving of, we don’t have that, it was taken away from us along with our preschool.

“Before you start giving Elkins the extra frills, maybe you should cover the essentials of the outlying schools,” Swecker said. “The children should not be punished for where they are born or be denied an education for where they are born…

“I know you can be as smart as my 11-year-old grandchild, who, when he was told they were going to try to close Harman and ship children to Elkins, said, ‘What? Are they crazy?’ He said, ‘Mamaw, when I have to come to Harman to visit you, I hate that ride from Elkins to Harman. I can’t imagine having to do that twice every day to go to school.'”

Amber Wilford, a parent of a Harman student, spoke about opportunities she said her child will be denied if the Harman School closes.

“I’m a parent of a student who currently participates in athletics at Harman School,” Wilford said. “The Impact Statement says that joint extra-curricular activities such as sports, leagues, and academic clubs could foster connections among students from different communities. On the contrary, consolation into Elkins will actually result in excluding Harman students from extracurricular opportunities.

“Currently, a student at Harman School is unlikely to qualify for a team. Having to try out against a Triple A athlete will put them at a disadvantage. There are complications in the distance parents would have to travel to pick up their child after practice. Not many parents will be able to manage or afford to do that.”

Longtime local businessman and former state legislator Mike Ross, who organized two “Save Our School” meetings to fight the closing of Coalton Elementary in October, also spoke to the BOE.

“I’m here to congratulate the Board on some decisions they have made, certainly the one about Coalton,” Ross said. “I think you have an opportunity tonight to get it right again and put Harman back on the schedule.

“I know it’s a tough decision and we have heard a lot of good comments tonight and received a lot of good information… You are not only punishing the kids, but you are killing the communities at the same time… Take a good look at what you have here tonight and vote to put Harman back in the system and keep it open.

“You have state officials, senators, delegates who are going back into session in January. They have a chance to change the school-aid formula,” Ross said. “It appears to me like you have the money, it’s how you manage it, how you spend it. I think you have the ability to do that and keep all of these schools open and keep these kids at home. You have the chance tonight to do the right thing and keep the doors open at Harman.”

Of the 28 people that signed up to speak, just one, former Randolph County BOE President Amanda Smith, spoke in favor of closing Harman School.

Randolph County Schools was placed in a State of Emergency by the West Virginia Department of Education in June.

In early October, in response to being placed in the State of Emergency, the Randolph BOE voted 4-1 to close the Harman K-12 School, and 5-0 to close North Elementary.

A week later, a public hearing and vote on the closure of the Pickens K-12 School was canceled approximately 90 minutes before it was scheduled to take place.

On Oct. 28, the board voted 3-2 against the closing of Midland Elementary and 4-1 against the closing of Coalton Elementary.

The next regular BOE meeting will be Dec. 2 at 5:30 p.m.