The state school board released Randolph County from a state of emergency, extended a state of emergency in Roane County for six months and declared a state of emergency in Harrison County.
The actions took place during a state Board of Education meeting on Wednesday.
Now under state intervention are: Mingo, Logan, Upshur, Nicholas, Tyler, Hancock, Boone and Harrison. Roane is under state of emergency.
With Harrison County, the state action now limits the the local board’s authority, delegating financial and personnel decisions to the state superintendent.
The state’s Office of Accountability reported that Harrison County Schools has been eating into reserves by about $16 million over two years because of excess staffing.
While enrollment has decreased steadily since 2019, the accountability office concluded, the per pupil expenditure and personnel in excess of the state funding formula have continued to increase.
Harrison County Schools employed 239 positions over the funding formula, state officials said. About 150 of those are funded by the excess levy. The school system has about 1,430 total personnel.
“This is pathetic,” state school board President Paul Hardesty said.
Hardesty added, “This is just blatant disregard for the public’s money.”
The accountability office also identified overreach by Harrison County board members into administration, “including reported interference in staffing, scheduling and discipline advocacy for specific schools programs or individuals, undermining of the superintendent’s authority and bypassing the established chain of command.”
On Roane County, the state board extended a state of emergency for six months to allow more progress toward balancing the budget and improving operational efficiency.
The emergency in Roane has been in effect since July 2025, when the county projected ending the year with a $1.3 million deficit with the potential of growing the gap without changes. Now, Roane County has reduced that deficit to about $1.2 million.
“While there is still much work to do, the trajectory of our financial outlook has changed dramatically over the course of the last year,” said Michelle Stellato, superintendent of Roane County Schools.
With Randolph County, state education officials saw enough progress to relieve the local system from a state of emergency first declared in June, 2025. The county remains under continued monitoring, though.
Randolph Superintendent Derek Lambert reported that, over the past school year, the local system has tightened expense controls, closed two schools and made 46.5 position eliminations.
“Over this past school year, Randolph County Schools has taken significant systemic actions to improve the long-term financial position,” Lambert said.
The state Board of Education took a number of additional actions, including laying out goals for Superintendent Michele Blatt for the coming year to be the basis of her next evaluation.
The goals include boosting student achievement, support and accountability; advancing innovation and “future readiness” for students; strengthening partnerships, community engagement and the education workforce; and expanding middle grades and career readiness initiatives.
One board member, James Paul, objected to the stated goals and said they’re too abstract.
“None of them are specific, none of them are measurable. I don’t know how I can come back next year and evaluate whether or not the superintendent has has met these goals, and some of them, frankly, I just don’t think are aligned with what I believe the board’s core responsibility should be,” Paul said.
The board also voted for its slate of officers for the coming year, retaining Hardesty as president and Victor Gabriel as vice president.
James Paul gave an alternate nomination of Scott Rotruck for president and Chris Stansbury for vice president, but his motion failed because no one seconded it.