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ELKINS – A state education official met with the Randolph County Board of Education this week to share information about how declining student enrollment statewide will affect school funding.
West Virginia Department of Education School Finance Operations Officer Uriah Cummings attended a Randolph County Board of Education work session Tuesday at the BOE’s Central Office.
It was the second gathering for the BOE this week. During Monday’s regular meeting, Randolph County Schools Superintendent Dr. Derek Lambert briefly discussed declining enrollment and the possibility of having to eliminate positions because of the amount of students the district lost this year.
Lambert told the BOE that, according to the Department of Education’s official numbers, there are currently 3,088 students enrolled in Randolph County Schools, and that total is what the state will base funding on.
Lambert said he was told by Cummings that with the amount of students lost this school year, the school district may need to cut around 27 to 28 positions.
During Tuesday’s work session, Cummings discussed the enrollment issue and told local officials that the state saw a decline of 8,000 students in the public schools system from a year ago.
“I believe that number is the second-largest decline in public school enrollment in the state’s history to date,” Cummings said. “And that has continued to be the case over a 10-year period now.”
Cummings said he has been with the WVDE for a decade, and that when he started there were around 280,000 students in West Virginia. He noted that there has been a decrease of 50,000 students since then.
Cummings told the Board that all of the funding the county receives from the state is based on how many students are enrolled in the county’s public schools.
“All the decision-making starts at that point because of how much impact student enrollment has on funding,” Cummings said. “Just to put it into perspective, our state aid funding formula that I have the pleasure of implementing and being able to have oversight of on behalf of the state, it puts $1.5 billion in public education, but also with that, a majority of that funding is driven by enrollment, which is why it is so important to be in touch with how that formula operates and how that impacts the fiscal bottom line of your school district.”
Cummings spoke specifically about the numbers for Randolph County Schools, which experienced a decline of net enrollment of 243.57 FTE (Full-Time Equivalent) since October of 2025, which equals a total decrease in overall funding of just over $2 million. He added that the district has lost 750 students during the past six years.
“I have analyzed the preliminary numbers in comparing where Randolph County Schools stood on Oct. 1, from a workforce perspective, compared to the level of funding the county received to employ that workforce for the given year,” Cummings said. “The county had received funding to employ just over 260 professional personnel for Fiscal Year 2027 and the county certified employment of 253 of those professional personnel. So it just came in under formula actually, through those state aid-funded positions.
“However, once you look at the locally funded positions, as well as some of these extended contracts that also impact the bottom line, you still come in slightly over what we would anticipate the funding availability to employ professional personnel. For service personnel, the state allows for 185 in Randolph, and the county employed 197.9 positions as of Oct. 1.”
Cummings said personnel cuts and eventual school closings are typically the results when it comes to declining student enrollment. He told the BOE, however, that the state Department of Education has issued a proposal to the state board and legislature for a state aid funding formula change.
“There are numerous fiscal implications obviously associated with such a proposal as that,” Cummings said. “I have continued to push the message that we can’t count on those funds to be available. The legislature has to take that proposal and consider it and take their own action to determine how that proposal fits into the state’s budget. Because they have to be fiscally responsible as well when it comes to taxpayers’ dollars.”
Randolph BOE member Randy Long directed a question toward Cummings about the proposal.
“Do you think there is going to be a negotiation point, and where do you think that (proposal) stands?” Long asked.
Cummings replied, “I’m blessed to be part of those conversations and I do thank the legislature for including us in those conversations… I don’t want to take lightly the fact that the legislature does value our opinion in terms of where we see need as well as shortfalls in our formula… So know that we will have further conversations through March before anything gets finalized.”
Long asked, “Do you think there will be change?”
Cummings said, “I feel very good about the fact that there will be additional resources put into public education in the state.”
The next regular Randolph County Board of Education meeting will be Nov. 19 at 5:30 p.m.