As the Dallas County Circuit Court begins its handling of a lawsuit filed by former Selma City Superintendent of Education Dr. Donald Jefferson against the Selma City School Board, the school system is now looking at the process it will need to follow to hire the next and full-time superintendent.

Following Thursday’s board member, board president Henry Hicks Sr. said he will first seek out an opinion from the state about if the required 120-day timeline to find a replacement will apply to Selma.

“Due to the fact we are in the middle of litigation, we are going to contact the state to see if we can get an extension on that 120-day requirement,” Hicks said. “We need to move forward on getting their input.”

According to Hicks and board attorney Katy Campbell the state normally requires systems find a superintendent within 120 days of the position coming open. In the case of the Selma City School System, the system would have 120 days from Oct. 26, the day the board terminated Jefferson’s contract.

If that date is not extended, the board could be facing a deadline as early as the end of February.

“I would like to add this to our discussions during our January work session,” Hicks said. “I will likely go ahead and contact Mrs. Campbell, asking she contact the state.”

Campbell was not in attendance at Thursday’s board meeting.

As for the lawsuit filed by Jefferson’s attorneys, the board is now working on their response to the suit, which was brought back to the Dallas County Circuit Court, after being placed originally in Federal Court.

The system has 10 days to offer their response and then the presiding circuit court judge has seven days from that point to schedule a preliminary hearing.

The one count that remains in the suit ties back to two events leading up to Jefferson’s firing.

The first is Jefferson attorney Terry Davis’ claim that the three board members, who voted to place Jefferson on administrative leave at an Oct. 13 board meeting, had met before hand and discussed their strategy.

The three board members Davis claimed met in violation of the state law were Frank Chestnut Jr., Brenda Randolph Obomanu and Holland Powell.

Those three board members, voted on Oct. 13 to place Jefferson on administrative leave. This vote came moments after board attorney Katy Campbell had provided a report detailing how Jefferson approved a contract with a student evaluation and professional development vendor without board approval.

“It is our plan to subpoena the phone records, the emails and the computers of each of those board members,” Davis said in a November interview.

The second part of their claim deals with the naming of Gerald Shirley interim superintendent following the marathon termination hearing on Oct. 25, which ended at 3 a.m. the morning of Oct. 26.

According to Davis, the board members who took part in that hearing (Chestnut, Obomanu and Powell), were wrong in naming Shirley interim superintendent at that hearing. Davis said such a decision and vote should have been done in an announced board meeting.

Williams said the calls for subpoenas and evidence by Davis at this point is premature.

“There will be a preliminary hearing and the judge could look at Mr. Davis and say ‘you don’t have enough here’ and throw out the case right then,” Jayne Harrell Williams, an attorney with the Montgomery law firm representing the system and the board members, said in November. “But, if it is moved forward from the preliminary hearing, there would be time for discovery.”

In the end, if a judge rules board members did violate the state’s Open Meeting Act in meeting as a group before hand, those members participating could face a fine of $1,000 or half of one month’s salary, whichever is less.

The judge could also rule their actions that day null and void, which would, Davis said, reinstate Jefferson as superintendent of education immediately.

“This case is real easy to resolve,” Davis said. “All they need to do is put Dr. Jefferson back in office and that would save the school system a whole lot of money.”