On Tuesday night, for the first time, the Randolph County Board of Education publicly offered information about potentially closing two schools — the Harman K-12 School and the Pickens K-12 School.

On the same night, at the same public meeting, Dr. Shawn Dilly, the county superintendent of schools, presented a schedule of seven public hearings, along with two special meetings in which the BOE will vote on whether to close the schools.

All seven hearings and two meetings will occur in the week between Nov. 13 and Nov. 19.

If you look at the calendar, you will note that Nov. 13 is less than six weeks away.

One could be forgiven for asking Dilly and the BOE, “What’s the big hurry?”

Perhaps anticipating that criticism, Dilly explained during Tuesday’s meeting that the BOE has applied for a grant from the state School Building Authority that would construct a new gymnasium and new classrooms at Tygarts Valley Middle School/High School (this information had been shared publicly by Dilly last month).

Dilly said Tuesday this proposed expansion at TVM/HS — which has not yet been approved by the state SBA — would make it possible to close Harman and Pickens.

“By expanding Tygarts Valley Middle/High School, the county gains the capacity to accommodate a larger student body, making it possible to adjust attendance zones and enhance resource allocation,” reads an amendment to the application, which the BOE approved Tuesday evening.

“The addition to Tygarts Valley Middle/High School enables the school to accept more students from neighboring areas, which provides the county with the flexibility to close two nearby schools that may no longer be cost-effective or efficient to maintain.”

Dilly proposes that students from Pickens be transferred to George Ward Elementary and Tygarts Valley Middle/High School, while students from Harman will be moved to Midland Elementary, Elkins Middle School and Elkins High School.

The superintendent said the deadline to submit the BOE’s decision on closing the schools to the West Virginia State Board of Education is Nov. 29.

If the Randolph BOE approves the closings in November, there will be a State Board of Education meeting in Charleston on Dec. 11 to vote on the closures.

So that answers the “What’s the hurry?” question. Perhaps a better question is, “Why wasn’t the public told about these plans earlier?”

Dilly was sworn in as superintendent at the beginning of July.

In August, he publicly warned the BOE that Randolph County Schools’ financial issues were “bleak” and that “if we don’t get in front of it, the state will step in and take over and make decisions for us.”

Speaking to the Elkins Rotary Club a month ago, Dilly stated Randolph County Schools’ declining student population is making the school system’s financial situation difficult, and noted that Pickens is the most expensive school to operate in the county.

We appreciate Dilly’s efforts to find a solution, and his stated willingness to be “transparent” regarding the school system’s finances, but we can certainly understand why many residents in the Harman and Pickens area are upset by this new — and swiftly moving — plan.

Closing a school can have a huge negative economic impact on a community. In this case, busing students to a farther-away school over icy mountain roads during harsh winter months is something that frightens local parents, understandably so.

Our Randolph County Board of Education members should not rush into making a decision about closing these schools. Unfortunately, the public hearing schedule for November virtually ensures that they will have no time to truly consider residents’ public comments before making their votes.

On Nov. 13, a hearing will be offered at Harman to hear public comments regarding the Harman School closure proposal. The next day, at Elkins High School, three public hearings will be held regarding the Harman proposal within 90 minutes — at 6 p.m., 6:30 p.m. and 7 p.m.

At 7:30 p.m., the BOE will vote on whether to close the Harman School.

Three public hearings — and then a vote on closing a school’s doors forever — in less than two hours? It sounds like the Board of Education’s members’ heads will be spinning that night. Is that the best state of mind in which to make such an important decision?

A very similar process will take place Nov. 19 at TVHS. Again, three public hearings — followed by a vote on forever shuttering the Pickens School — in less than two hours.

Is it any wonder we’ve been hearing Harman and Pickens residents saying, “They’ve already got their minds made up,” and complaining that they feel they’re not a part of the decision-making process?

Closing these two schools may very well be necessary to secure the school system’s financial stability. But the communities of Harman and Pickens deserve more time to make their case to keep their schools open. And the residents deserve more respect from the school system than to swiftly push such a community-altering plan through.