ELKINS — Randolph County School Interim Superintendent Terry George made two recommendations to the Randolph County Board of Education Tuesday night regarding the two county schools that will be vacated at the end of the school year.

As the West Virginia Board of Education approved the Randolph County BOE’s recommendation to close the Harman K-12 School and North Elementary School last year, those two properties will become empty when school concludes in June.

Discussions were ongoing between the Randolph County BOE and former Superintendent Dr. Shawn Dilly — before his resignation at the end of March — about the direction the county wanted to take with those properties.

George told the BOE Tuesday night that he had been talking with Harman resident Ed Bucher about the future of the Harman School. Bucher is a member of Harman Education Association, an organization hoping to gain control of the building and possibly turn it into a micro school.

“I want to talk to you about the Harman School,” George said during the Superintendent’s Report portion of Tuesday’s meeting. “Mr. Bucher is present at the meeting tonight and he and I had a meeting and a couple of discussions. I am going to urge you as a Board to consider the option of giving the school in Harman to the group that would like to start some type of school there. Whether it be a micro school, whether it would be a charter school, or whatever they can work out.”

George told the Board that Bucher’s group is working on establishing itself as a non-profit. George said he hoped the BOE would transfer the property over to the group.

“Mr. Bucher’s group is working very diligently to complete their 501c3 and they also have a partnership with another organization in Harman that already has a 501c3 in place,” George said. “I think that with everything in light of what’s happened here over the last year – I wasn’t here for it, but you know I’ve inherited it – so I would like to see the Board consider working with Mr. Bucher to see if everything can be done smoothly enough to transfer that property over to them with the exception of stuff that is required by law to be removed from the building.”

George said what he was proposing was not a vote item and that was not recommending the BOE make a decision during the meeting.

“I’m urging you to consider that possibility and perhaps may have a future work session where Mr. Bucher can explain his position, along with some of the communities,” George said. “We could have a special meeting to do that or even have it at the conclusion of a regular Board meeting. Just to explore that opportunity and that option for what to do with that property. I think it would be a goodwill gesture for the county, a goodwill gesture for the Board if we could put everything into place to facilitate that.”

BOE President Rachel Burns told George some deed research is ongoing for the property.

“I know you just got here 2 1/2 weeks ago, but I think there was maybe some deed research that was being done or needs to be done,” she said.

George replied, “Your attorneys have worked on that and according to Mr. (Jason) Long (the attorney representing the school district) I think they have everything in place to be able to move, not only on the Harman property, but also whether you would like to move on the property at North (Elementary) or whether we would like to have a public auction.

“My suggestion is to auction the property at North,” George said. “It’s a very valuable piece of property, a large piece of real estate, and the building is still in pretty good shape. I think you will realize a pretty substantial financial gain from the county by holding an auction on that property. Again, that’s the Board’s prerogative and you have the option of doing these things.”

George said that it was important for the Board to start the discussion about the properties so that it could think about what steps it wants to take.

“I encourage you to give it great consideration and give me any feedback you want,” George said. “Call me, text me, or come see me ”

Board member Phi Chua told George, “I think it has been the will of the Board to give the building to the Harman community the whole time. So I don’t think that’s going to be an issue. It’s just making sure we get the legalese about who’s going to be in control of the property and that sort of thing.”

George replied, “We could start your attorneys to work on that as soon as you make the decision that’s what you want to do. It’s not a vote item tonight, so you can’t decide tonight… I think we can have a lot more information for you before the April 21 meeting.”

Board member Ed Daniels told Dilly that there was talk at previous BOE meetings that some items would have to be removed from the Harman School before handing it over.

“There are certain technology items that have to be removed by federal code,” George said. “Other than the items that are actually required to be removed by federal code, we are going to try and leave everything in place because if you bring it over here (Elkins) you’re just going to store it… I would like to work out a situation where we only remove what absolutely has to be removed by law, and we facilitate the transfer, if you approve, as quickly as possible.”

The next regular Randolph County Board of Education meeting will be April 21 at 5:30 p.m.