Four members of the BOE met with Superintendent of Schools Dr. Shawn Dilly during the planned gathering, with Board member Phil Chua not in attendance. Dilly had suggested during the Board’s most recent regular meeting that a bond proposal or levy vote should be considered to help fund school system projects.

The two sides agreed this week on a plan that would send surveys out to the public in the upcoming months, and that a bond or levy vote should be put on the ballot for the 2026 November election.

Dilly said putting out surveys will allow the BOE to see what the public may or may not want.

“We can work on developing a survey and get it out for a period of time,” Dilly said. “I spoke to a gentleman today from the community who seemed to be very motivated and he talked about the need for surveys. That way we can see what folks are either for or against so that we kind of know how to shape these as we go forward…

Randolph County Board of Education member Ed Daniels speaks during a special work session regarding running a bond or levy in the November 2026 election.

“I hear a lot of people in the community with the same desires as I do, they want a better school system. I think how we get there is part of the challenge. We need to try and navigate right now.”

BOE member Sherri Collett asked Dilly about the time frame the two sides have to work with in order to get the ball rolling.

“We would be looking at the November election, so that would give us about a year,” Dilly said. “The thought process is that we will start in December or January with the surveys, trying to get some things assembled and determine what we would be looking for. I have only worked with one excess levy, so I’m not familiar with all the timelines and stuff. So I will have to work on getting that information for you guys.”

BOE member Rachel Burns said it was a good idea to wait until the November 2026 election to get something done.

“With waiting ’til November I think we can get some really solid work done,” Burns said. “Knowing it’s going to be an uphill battle, we can at least give it a solid college try (and) find something to appeal to as many people as we can… We want to see what people want us to put out.”

BOE member Ed Daniels said he would like to see if there were different options for how money is collected from a bond or levy.

“As a resident of Randolph County, I’ve noticed that we are only taxing those who own something,” Daniels said. “And that’s something we have to get past.

“There’s a lot of money that comes through Randolph County going to Snowshoe from other states… And that’s one of the reasons I’ve asked in the past about a 1% tax or a penny tax. What can we do to work together with our legislation to create something like that? Because farmers own a lot of land and they get hit hard. They are going to fight us on this and we have to think of a way to get around that, because the people who don’t own anything, they get off free. We have to create something where everyone contributes to this tax to support our schools. That’s the only way we are going to keep it going.”

Finance Director Brad Smith responded to Daniels, saying, “I think we are reaching a point where coalitions may begin to form, to really begin to push at the state level for changes to do different things.”

At the start of the meeting, Dilly provided a presentation highlighting the differences between a bond and levy.

“I think sometimes when we start throwing the terms bonds and levies around it confuses folks,” Dilly said. “A school bond is basically used for construction or renovations. So when we are thinking about building new schools, athletic facilities or buildings, that’s why I always think of bonds with building.

“We want people to understand what we are talking about when we discuss a school bond. An excess levy is something else that would actually provide funding for operations. It could be staff, transportation, innovative technologies, or a variety of different things.”

Dilly said it takes a simple majority vote to get a bond or levy to pass, noting that either would have to appear on a primary or general election ballot.

“A school bond creates a long-term debt repaid by property tax collections,” Dilly said. “Those would include a slight increase in property taxes until that debt is retired. The excess levy is a temporary increase in tax rates that provides an annual revenue with no long-term debt not to exceed five years.”

During a special hearing on Oct. 8, the BOE voted 4-1 to close the Harman and North Elementary schools. Since then, a vote to close Pickens K-12 was pulled from the table, and the BOE voted against closing Coalton and Midland Elementary.

The closures were proposed by Dilly, after Randolph County Schools was placed in a State of Emergency by the West Virginia Department of Education in June.

The next regular Randolph County Board of Education meeting will be Tuesday at 5:30 p.m. at the BOE office.