ELKINS — The superintendent of Randolph County Schools said he is trying to prevent students from having to make up “snow days” at the end of the school year.

Dr. Shawn Dilly told the Board of Education at Tuesday night’s that, despite the fact that the Randolph County Schools system has had to use its fair share of snow days this winter, if a waiver is approved by the state Department of Education, students may not have to make up as many days.

“I wanted to share an update with the snow days, determining what make-up days and things we are looking at,” Dilly told the BOE Tuesday night. “One of the things that is clear at this point is that the last day for employees will be June 15.

“We have put a waiver in, requesting for Jan. 26 through Jan. 30, when the governor placed a State of Emergency. We do not know if we will receive that waiver, but the hope is that we will and the last day for students would be moved from June 12 to June 5.”

Dilly said the waiver plan benefited from the school district receiving the state’s permission to move a PL Day (Professional Learning Day) and a CD Day (Curriculum Development Day) around in the final months of the schedule.

“What we did learn with a meeting we had with the state department is that we are not actually able to move the PL Days based on state code, other than the one that they have given us permission to do,” Dilly said. “But we are hopeful that maybe we will find out this week or next about the waiver and if we get permission.”

At the previous BOE meeting in late February, Dilly told the BOE that he was seeking permission from the state to move around four combined PL and CD days. Students are required to attend school on either of those days. PL Days are intended for educators to engage in activities designed to improve instruction, while CD Days are non-instructional days within the school calendar designed for educators to work on curriculum planning, development, and alignment with state standards.

On Tuesday night, BOE President Rachel Burns asked Dilly, “Does every county that filled out a waiver get the same response as all of us, or could every county get something different?”

Dilly replied, “They said it could be five days, it could be three days, or it could be zero days. We are just relaying what was conveyed to us and we were encouraged to submit that, so we did submit the waiver request.

“The hope is that they will give us that because we know that students shut down after that first week in June pretty hard and heavy. And it would really benefit the county too, because of the schools’ closings, transferring, and all of that. So we think it would be really beneficial.”

Burns asked, “Do they (the state BOE) have to answer us right away, or just whenever they feel like it?”

Dilly said, “I have a meeting Thursday in Fairmont and several of the state department officials will be there, so I’m hoping I can pry out of them what they are thinking and when they will make a decision. At this point I don’t know, but right now this is the hope that we have in trying to get the students out as early as possible.”

The next BOE meeting will be March 17 at 5:30 p.m.