With the county school district's facilities committee unable to reach the required two-thirds majority after several tries, the Harlan County Board of Education took matters into its own hands Monday.

After hearing from state-appointed facilitator George Cawood and committee chairman Frank Smith, board chairman Gary Farmer made a motion to pass a plan approved 9-7 by the facilities committee to merge the county's three high schools into one. The plan also called for a new elementary school at Wallins and improvements to several other facilities.

Board members Brenda Henson and Myra Mosley voted with Farmer in favor of the plan while Arlene Brown and Pam Sherman Sheffield voted no.

Farmer said the board will request a waiver from the Kentucky Department of Education which would allow the plan to become official despite the fact the committee failed to achieve a two-thirds majority.

Facilities planning committee member and strong anti-consolidationist Roy Silver criticized Farmer's motion.

"Rules and regulations were put in place for a reason," Silver said after the meeting. "A two-thirds majority is intended to represent a cross section of the community and school personnel. Once again, they're circumventing the process to get their plan in."

Since January, Cawood said the committee had held 15 meetings and four public forums.

Evarts High School teacher Amanda Blair attempted to place some of the board members in the hot seat when she spoke during the meeting's designated time for individual delegations. She spoke of the death of her son, and how she'd always wanted him to be able to choose any career based on the solid education he had received.

"I spoke personally to Mrs. Henson and Mrs. Mosley about consolidation, and they both told me that they did not support it," Blair said. "My mother raised me to believe that my word is my bond, and I just want to say to you board members, you will stand before a just God regardless of what decision you make, whether it's for children or for personal gain."

At the close of the meeting, Brown, a representative of the Clover Fork area, said she had no prior knowledge of Farmer's motion and that she was disappointed in the manner in which she found about the chairman's intention.

"Me and the other three ladies who are on this board, when we were running for election, all four of us told our voters that we would never vote for consolidation," Brown said. "Two of us didn't tonight, and two of us did. Like the lady said, you're only as good as your word, and if we promised our voters, we should have stuck by it."

Henson spoke up in defense.

"Arlene, I beg to differ," she began. "I never did promise that to anyone. Anybody who knows me knows my stand on consolidation."