ELKINS — A number of residents — and one member of the Randolph County Board of Education – have requested that the BOE’s vote in October to close the Harman K-12 School be rescinded.

At the most recent BOE meeting, a total of nine citizens, teachers and students asked the board members to reconsider the decision on the Harman School.

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 Superintendent Dr. Shawn Dilly, after Randolph County Schools was placed in a State of Emergency by the West Virginia Department of Education in June.

Near the end of the most recent BOE meeting, Board member Ed Daniels also asked that the Harman vote be rescinded.

“I would personally like to see us revisit the vote or hearing for Harman School,” Daniels said. “I think with the information I have heard this evening and we all received, there’s some inaccuracies in some things that were presented to us and I think we need to revisit that.”

BOE President Rachel Burns responded, “I quite frankly don’t know legally if we can, and I’m not trying to skirt the issue, and I will do whatever the consensus of the board is. I don’t know legally if that is even anything that can be entertained. I know it’s easy to say something is, but we cannot do it tonight.”

Dave Armentrout, a teacher at Harman for the past 28 years, presented to Burns a copy of a policy relating to Daniels’ request to the BOE.

“I know everybody thinks, but I honestly still do not know if that is possible,” Burns said.

Armentrout replied, “That’s policy, you can review the policy. You can make a motion to put it on the agenda to do that.”

Daniels said, “Then I would like to make a motion to put it on the agenda for our next meeting.”

“I don’t even know if we can do that,” Burns said. “You can’t make a motion for something that is not on the agenda. And I’m not trying to be difficult, but I have to follow rules and I’ve been told I’m not strict enough to begin with.”

After a brief discussion by the Board, with some input from people attending the meeting, Burns reminded the room that the BOE could not have a discussion with the audience during that portion of the meeting.

“I’m trying my best to follow the rules that were given to me to run a meeting,” she said. “A public meeting, but not for the public to interject and partake in at other times other than delegation. It seems rude and I used to think it was rude, too, before I was on the board, but now I understand why there are those things and I’ve been told to be stricter. So if that’s the board’s desire, I can ask legal if that’s even a thing… I think all I can do at this point is say I can look into it and go from there.”

Harman resident Rex Vance, who graduated from the school in 1969, was one of the first to speak during the meeting.

“I don’t understand how the board can profit by closing Harman School,” Vance said. “I’m imploring you to rescind your vote on Oct. 8, 2025 for closing Harman. For some reason Dilly has a personal vendetta to close Harman. I don’t know why… It was the first school he chose to come to (when hired) and he had his mind made up that he wanted to close Harman… Why would you want to sacrifice kids’ lives for money?”

Lilly Roy, a senior student at Harman School, asked her mother to read her requests to the Board of Education.

“I know the vote to close Harman School was unfair to our community,” Roy wrote. “I’m asking you tonight to please reconsider your vote and let the students stay safe and continue where they are now.”

Harman resident Judy Bucher talked to the Board about how several things have changed since the proposal to close Harman was presented.

“The decisions that were subsequently made on the proposed closures, means the overall plan that was outlined by Dr. Dilly will not be moving forward for next year,” she said. “I would like to take this opportunity to request that in light of the recent developments, your decision to close Harman School be revisited.”

Phil Perrine, another resident of Harman, told the BOE he believes a bus waiver request sent to the State BOE was inaccurate and was missing information. Perrine insists the waiver did not contain a cumulative mileage report, and that many students, including seven on the Pendleton County line, were not listed.

“As evident in the information we have provided you this evening, which should have been completed and verified prior to submitting to the (State) Board for consideration, the (Randolph County) Board has no choice but to rescind the vote to close Harman for the 2026-27 school year, as the waiver is not valid.”

Armentrout also spoke during the early part of the meeting.

“Mr. Dilly and members of the Board, please accept this as an official notification in requesting that one of you, which is totally allowable, make a motion to rescind your decision, and revote for keeping Harman School open, under the same guidelines that were used in your most recent justification in allowing two of our county schools to remain open.”

Longtime local businessman and former state legislator Mike Ross was one of the last to speak at the most recent meeting, saying, “Harman should have an extension, they should join Coalton and Midland and stay together. And then we work together to lobby the legislature this session. You have another whole year.”

The next regular BOE meeting will be Tuesday, Nov. 18 at 5:30 p.m.