This week I had the privilege of touring the brand new, state-of-the-art Selma High School facility with the construction manager, Jonathan Green and Selma City Schools Director of Operations, Ray Mathiews.

I am thrilled to tell the community all of the wonderful things I got to see.

The building has a unique style and design that congeals from room to room and wing to wing with the Selma High colors of gold and blue as light and sleek accents throughout the building.

I was most impressed with the school’s brand new media center — it combines modern and traditional architecture as the main room has glass walls, yet the back façade is actually the old stone front of the former Selma High School building. That back façade looks like something out of Hogwarts in the Harry Potter movies and I hope that will give the students pride in the uniqueness of their school campus.

There are two competition gyms while most schools have just one. The main gym can seat 1,400 and the smaller one seats 600. But the exciting statistics don’t stop there. The auditorium seats 750 people and has an incredible projector and surround sound system that can give viewers the same effect as a movie theatre.

But what does this new construction mean for the community? Absolutely everything.

People can drone on and on about what this town needs. I’ve heard solutions like, “We need a major interstate,” or “we need educated young people to stay here and not move away.” Sure — all of those things have the potential really make a difference but I think this new campus for our young people will impact our city in a unique and exciting way.

My hope for Selma High School is that this new building, which will be the envy of schools all around the state, will inspire our high school students to want more, work for more and achieve more than they ever dreamed.

I hope this school, with its new theatre and high-speed technologies, can empower students and make them feel responsible for this gift that the community has given them.

I hope they can have such a pride in their school that they will take a stand against their peers who want to deface it by scribbling on the desks or sticking gum under the new Saints bleachers.

Once the students have this pride and spirit for their school, I hope this will translate into pride and spirit in themselves.

Maybe that will turn into something unstoppable: pride in their roots, in their culture and heritage and pride in their hometown of Selma.

This new facility will surely strengthen our city’s students in all areas of academics, the arts and in athletics, and they will then be competitive with all schools in the state.

Let’s all encourage these students to be good stewards of the new gift they have just received and use it to its fullest potential so that they can realize their own personal potential.