On Friday, a Randolph County Board of Education representative told The Inter-Mountain that the public hearings and BOE vote on closing the Harman K-12 School will be held tonight, even if classes in all the county schools have been canceled for the day due to the weather.

Randolph County Schools sporting events and other extra-curricular activities are postponed on evenings when “snow day” school cancellations have taken place. This is done with the safety of the students and their families in mind.

Safety concerns were apparently ignored in making the decision to have tonight’s hearings and vote regardless of the weather. Basic respect for the residents of the Harman community also seems to have been placed on the back burner.

The point of the public hearings is so residents and parents can come out and voice their concerns to the Board of Education. If none of those people are able to attend tonight because of the weather, the public hearing process will be worthless.

Is someone hoping that the weather is terrible and no one shows up tonight? Is that the point of this disrespectful decision?

Many observers were already suspicious when Superintendent of Schools Dr. Shawn Dilly announced in December that the public hearing process for his proposal to close the Harman and Pickens K-12 schools had been rescheduled for January, and that none of the hearings would now take place in either Harman or Pickens.

The move to January was prompted because some residents had raised concerns about the notification requirements related to posting the hearings information. Was the decision to not have any hearings in Harman or Pickens a punitive move because residents had voiced their concerns?

From the time Dilly first announced his school-closing proposal in October, we’ve heard 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.

It should go without saying, but for the record let us state that if the weather is bad this evening, the public hearings and BOE vote should be rescheduled for another night. That would be a decision based on common sense and basic respect. It would be good for Dilly and the BOE to demonstrate to the community that they still possess those qualities.