ELKINS – The Randolph County Board of Education laid the levy and approved the school calendar during two recent special meetings.

The first special meeting was called to lay the levy rates. Interim Superintendent Terry George requested that the BOE approve the Levy Order and Rate Sheet for the Fiscal Year ending June 30, 2027.

“We’ve looked it (Levy) over and I think we’ve done a tremendous job on this,” George told the BOE. “I hope it comes in a little bit higher by the end of next year, but we will have to see.”

The projected net taxes to be collected locally with this year’s Levy Rate totals $9,661,265. For Class 1 property, the rate is 19.4 cents per $100, while for Class 2 property, the rate is 38.8 cents for $100. For Class 3 and Class 4 property, the rate is 77.6 cents per $100.

“Basically what they do is take our state aid, reduce it, and we just collect that amount ($9.6 M) locally,” Randolph County School Finance Director Brad Smith told the Inter-Mountain after the meeting. “The rate typically stays the same each year, but it changes as property values are updated. So it does normally climb each year, but that doesn’t mean we are seeing more money from the state.”

During the meeting, Smith explained the process to BOE members Rachel Anger, Phil Chua, Janie Newlon, Sherri Collett and Ed Daniels.

“We laid the proposed levy rates on March 17. At that time we recessed the meeting and I forwarded those on to the state auditor’s office for approval,” Smith said. “We have those back and I’m asking you to officially lay the levy order and rate sheet tonight. We try to discuss this each year. This is the amount of local dollars we receive each year – this is not an excess levy.

“When the state runs Randolph County through the formula, they come up with x amount of dollars. These are local dollars that just stay here instead of going on to Charleston. And they come via a check from the Sheriff’s Office to my department each month. So this is not an excess levy, this is part of our state aid.”

Burns, president of the BOE, asked Smith, “We do not come up with the levy rates and we do not control those?”

Smith replied, “Correct, the only thing we can do is through a vote, a bond or a levy, we can not adjust this at all. We have no power to do that without a vote from the people.”

The Levy Order and Rate Sheet were approved 5-0 by the BOE.

Mike DiPasquale, the school system’s Director of Personnel, Human Resources & Staff Development, told the Board he would send two attachments comprising the Levy Order and Rate Sheet to the State BOE for approval.

The second special meeting was a Calendar Hearing to discuss the 2026-2027 Randolph County School Calendar. DiPasquale told the BOE that the Calendar Committee had come up with two drafts for the calendar.

DiPasquale said that Draft 1 of the calendar only guaranteed Friday and Tuesday off around the Easter holiday for Spring Break, while Draft 2 guaranteed a full week of spring break beginning on Good Friday.

DiPasquale added that in Draft 1, Christmas Break would begin on Dec. 22 for students and Dec. 24 for staff, while in Draft 2 Christmas Break would begin for everyone on Dec. 22.

“Students get out a little earlier in Draft 1 on May 28, which is before Memorial Day,” DiPasquale said. “They would get out the day after Memorial Day in Draft 2, so it only changes it by one day on those calendars.”

Anger asked DiPasquale if there was a preference between the two by the Calendar Committee.

“When the Calendar Committee looked at it we were pretty happy with both of them,” DiPasquale said. “I don’t recall a preference.”

DiPasquale said he sent out a survey to the county’s teachers and the response was about a 50-50 split between both calendars.

Newlon said, “If it’s one day and they are guaranteed the Spring Break, that’s the one I’m kind of leaning to.”

DiPasquale responded, “The big difference is if you look at it is if we have a bunch of snow days like this past year, then we are getting pushed into the second week of June on that second calendar (for school to let out). Because there are no makeup days elsewhere in the calendar.”

George added, “I think they are both good calendars, you just have to decide which one is your preference and we will go with that. There are pros and cons for each one and I don’t particularly have a preference.”

The Board of Education voted 5-0 to approve Draft 2 of the School Calendar. DiPasquale said he would post the calendar on the school district’s website at boe.rand.k12.wv.us.

The next regular Randolph County Board of Education meeting will be Tuesday, May 5 at 5:30 p.m.