By Leesha Faulkner

The Selma Times-Journal

Selma Early College will continue.

Wallace Community College Selma President James Mitchell said the Selma School System does not owe the institution $350,000.

“For two years, they were supposed to get at-risk money for tuition and books,” Mitchell said. “They said for two years they didn’t get the money, so we wrote grants to pay for it.”

Last week, Selma schools superintendent Donald Jefferson told the school board if the early college program didn’t come up with money to pay Wallace, the program would close.

Jefferson said the school system owed for last year and this year.

In a telephone interview Friday, Jefferson said he had spoken with Mitchell about the money issue.

“If that’s the case,” Jefferson said of the payment made through grants, “then, we’ll continue the program.”

Initial funding from SECME Inc. through the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation started the program. That grant money is gone, Mitchell said.

Local attorney and chairman of the advisory committee to Selma Early College, Collins Pettaway, had spoken to the school board last week during its work session. Pettaway told the school board he put the advisory committee to work seeking money to continue the program.

Said Mitchell, “Collins had no clue. He’s been on the advisory committee. All they do is talk and they haven’t raised one dime.”

Selma also belongs to a coalition of Black Belt counties under the Black Belt College Readiness program, Mitchell said. The Black Belt program tries to prepare all students, who are interested, for the college experience.

Mitchell said that preparation could include a student taking one or two courses or a student going through an early college experience, such as Selma’s program.