The Randolph County Board of Education surprised many in the community — quite a few of them pleasantly — by voting 4-1 Tuesday night against closing the Harman K-12 School.

The decision has already had wide-ranging repercussions. The next morning, Randolph County Schools Superintendent Dr. Shawn Dilly announced that the proposal to close the Pickens School had been withdrawn.

Closing the two K-12 schools was just the first step in Dilly’s proposed Reorganization Plan, which was to include closing a total of five elementary schools and creating two consolidated elementary schools.

Now that five-year plan appears to have been crushed by Tuesday night’s decision as well.

The four BOE members who voted down the Harman closure proposal — Ed Daniels, Janie Newlon, Dr. Philip Chua and Dr. Sherri Collett –surely had their own reasons for casting “nay” votes, but it’s reasonable to assume they were influenced at least in part by the outpouring of dissent from Harman and Pickens residents that we’ve seen since Dilly first made the proposals back in October.

Parents, grandparents, students and even teachers from the two schools came to speak at BOE meetings in the past three months, often bringing with them signs and banners, pleading with board members to keep the schools open.

The point was made repeatedly that the two schools are the focal point of the Harman and the Pickens communities, and that busing children over the mountains to Elkins during a snowy winter — such as the one we’re currently experiencing — was a very dangerous proposition.

The Pickens Local School Improvement Council even organized and funded a weekend school bus trip from Mill Creek to Pickens to demonstrate to the BOE and Dilly how long students would have to spend on a bus each school day. This newspaper praised Dilly and Daniels for showing up for the event and taking the long bus ride along with parents and residents.

During the past three months, some residents expressed the fear that all the work they were doing was hopeless, that all the speeches and protests would be in vain. Tuesday’s vote proved that making their voices heard was important, and that the BOE members were listening.

Dilly has pointed out that, now that the school closure proposals have been discarded, the school system will have to make major cuts in its budget, perhaps by reducing positions.

Here’s hoping that the community spirit that Harman and Pickens have shown in recent months will continue, and that residents will be willing to work together with the BOE and the school system to improve local education.