File photo Randolph County Schools Superintendent Dr. Shawn Dilly spoke before the state Board of Education Wednesday.

CHARLESTON — The West Virginia Board of Education voted at its monthly meeting Wednesday morning to extend the Randolph County school system’s State of Emergency status for another six months.

During the new business portion of the meeting, several school systems, including Randolph County’s, had representatives provide the State BOE with updates on improvements that have been made since the school systems were placed in a State of Emergency,

Before Randolph County Schools Superintendent Dr. Shawn Dilly presented his six-month update, Alexandra Criner, director of the West Virginia Department of Education’s Office of Accountability, reminded the state BOE that Randolph County was put on probation because of its inability to balance the 2026 budget. She also stressed that the state BOE had to take action at the end of Dilly’s presentation.

“At the conclusion of the update, it will be necessary for the Board to take action in regard to the State of Emergency status,” Criner said. “This may include lifting the State of Emergency entirely, extending the State of Emergency for an additional six months, or immediate intervention into the operation of Randolph County Schools.”

Dilly said Randolph County Schools has made many changes since first being placed in a State of Emergency last June.

“Since then we have held over 10 sessions to address realignment and reorganization, as far as mergers and consolidations,” Dilly told the State BOE. “On Oct. 8, the Board supported the closure of Harman and North Elementary (schools).

“On Oct. 21, due to a lot of background work by our administrative team, both at the school level and Central Office level, we did balance the FY 26 budget… On Nov. 4 we have also begun the discussions of bond and levy discussions, and talking about how we can support at the local level to address our ongoing concerns.”

Dilly admitted that Randolph County Schools still has work to do moving forward.

“We recognize that we are not out of the woods yet. We have made the (Randolph) Board aware that basically in January that we are sitting 61.47 positions over formula and that we will need to be doing quite a bit of work,” Dilly said.

“We recognize that the existing closures and mergers that were supported were 20 to 25 positions that will help address those, but we still have roughly about a $2.2 million challenge ahead of us, recognizing that personnel season is going to be a necessary advocate moving forward,” he said.

“We want to make sure we continue to work with the Department of Education to ensure long-term stability, but we recognize the loss of students continues to outpace any reorganization and reconfiguration of our schools moving forward.”

After Dilly’s presentation, State BOE President Paul Hardesty asked the Board if it had any for the superintendent. After no questions were asked, Hardesty made a motion to extend the State of Emergency, which was seconded by BOE member Nancy J. White. The State BOE then unanimously voted to extend the Randolph County school system’s State of Emergency for another six months.

Prior to the closure meetings that took place in October, the same BOE members voted 4-1 against closing the Harman K-12 School back in January of 2025. The following day a proposal to close the Pickens K-12 School was officially withdrawn and the school remains open.

One year ago, in January 2025, the Randolph County Board of Education voted against 4-1 against the closing of Harman K-12 School, and the next day a vote on closing the Pickens School was canceled.

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

A week later, a public hearing and vote to close the Pickens K-12 School was canceled approximately 90 minutes before it was scheduled to take place, and the school remained open.

At the end of October, the Randolph BOE voted 3-2 against closing Midland Elementary, and voted 4-1 against closing Coalton Elementary.

The Randolph County Board of Education will next meet on Tuesday at 5:30 p.m.