The five-year strategic plan that Selma City Schools Superintendent Dr. Avis Williams proposed to the board has been approved.

At the board meeting on Tuesday night, the board agreed to let the school system continue with the strategic plan for revitalizing the school system in all aspects of operation.

“At the center of our Framework for Excellence lies the ultimate goal of increased student achievement as measured within both college and career readiness, as well as students’ character and social development,” according to the plan documents.

The first part of the plan has a goal of ensuring all students are prepared for grade level success, college and career readiness through high-quality teaching and focused experiences for intellectual and social development.

The plan’s implementation for this goal includes developing annual performance benchmarks to promote systematic achievement growth and success for all students; ensure equitable access to rigorous standards-based instruction and strategic teaching and provide targeted and personalized professional development for instructional staff.

One of the implementations to ensure equitable access to instruction and strategic teaching is the establishment of a Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Math (STEAM) Academy at R.B. Hudson Middle School.

Williams said that while changes are already happening at the middle school, the STEAM Academy would officially open in the 2019 school year.

Williams said that R.B. Hudson would go to a 1:1 ratio in equipment for the STEAM lab as well.

“We will need an infrastructure to support that,” said Williams in previous meetings.

In the culture, climate and community area, the goal is to enhance the supports and opportunities for engagement in schools for all stakeholders.

According to the plan, the goal will be achieved by ensuring schools are physically and emotionally safe from perceived and actual threats, and develop positive relationships with stakeholders to promote diversity and inclusion as well as involvement and participation across the Selma City School district.

In the leadership, management and governance area, the goal is to strategically and efficiently allocate human and fiscal resources to ensure long-term viability within the district.

This will be achieved by actively recruiting, hiring and retaining a qualified and diverse workforce, ensuring every school and every department has highly effective instructional leaders providing ongoing, job-embedded responsive professional learning for all staff to improve overall performance and continuing to maintain a minimum of one-months reserve in the general fund.

The final goal, facilities and technology, the goal is to streamline the district’s geographic footprint to ensure a more equitable distribution of resources, more efficient operations and to enhance the current technology infrastructure, equipment and devices available to schools.

The two ways Williams and the school system hope to achieve this is to analyze and review facilities to support services for improved district outcomes and provide technologies that operate efficiently, enrich programs and improve district outcomes.

One objective for this area is to systematically analyze and review facilities to support services for improved district outcomes.

One of the implementations for this goal is to develop a plan to systematically consolidate, renovate, rezone and maintain schools within the district for an equitable division of resources.

Also, in an effort to increase possibilities for non-resident students, the board approved at the recommendation of Williams the procedures for non-resident students to apply for and receive permission to enroll in the school system.

“This way people can just fill out the form and we can go from there,” said Williams. “We have registration beginning Aug. 1 and Aug. 2. at our schools, and parents can go ahead and have this completed. School starts on Aug. 6. We will post these forms on the website, and we will have hard copies here at the central office.”

Non-resident students must meet with the school principal prior to enrolling in Selma City Schools. The student must maintain a 95 percent attendance rate or higher, a minimum of C academic average or 2.5 grade point average, and have limited discipline infractions.

Selma City Schools is not responsible for providing transportation for non-resident students.