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The Selma City Schools has posted its job announcement for its next superintendent.

The school district is working with the Alabama Association of School Boards to seek a leader who can raise student achievement within the school system among other significant factors and serve as the appointed person to make decisions and policies within the role that will benefit the students and staff of Selma.

Lead searcher and consultant Susan Salter of the AASB organization said interested applicants have until Dec. 17 to submit their applications. Base salary starts at $145,000 and “will be negotiable based on experience and a proven track record,” according to the AASB website.

“This is an exciting time for the school system,” Salter said. “Looking forward to what they need to move the system forward over the next five to 10 years. It is also a great opportunity for the board members to come together and really flesh out what their vision is for the system and to hear from the community about what they want to see happening in the Selma City Schools.”

Selma City Schools began its search after Dr. Zickeyous Byrd announced his retirement effective Sept. 30. Darryl Aikerson has been serving as interim superintendent since Oct. 1. Salter said candidates who are interested in the role and who have applied for the position online, can go to the Selma City Schools Facebook page or the AASB organization page to review the job brochure to get a more in-depth understanding about the Selma City Schools and its purpose.

“With the document online, these are the kind of data points that candidates applying for the superintendent role need to know,” Salter said. “They are available to give candidates who might not be that familiar with Selma right now, a sense of the size and the scope of the system, the funding that’s available and some idea of what challenges might be.”

Salter said candidates can look at the brochure to see where the school system gets their funding and the fact that only 19% is of local funds, which tells them that there’s not a lot of flexibility in the budget and that 81% of the system’s budget combined comes from state and federal sources and how those tend to be allocated for very specific services or programs.

Salter said the process to find the right applicant for the role might take up to four months and said by Jan. 7, the Alabama Association of School Boards will submit their list of  finalists to the Selma City Board of Education. By mid-February, Salter anticipated the district should be preparing to bring someone on board.

“No one candidate is going to have every single quality that the system is looking for, but the board’s job will be to review these applications, these finalists thoroughly and to ask questions that will help them identify the candidate that has and is the best match for working with the board, the system employees and to work the community.”

Interested candidates are encouraged to apply online and send their full transcripts to the Alabama Association of School Boards, P.O. Box 4980, Montgomery, AL 36103-4980 or email them to SuperintendentSearch@AlabamaSchoolBoards.org

For more information, contact Susan Salter at susansalter@gmail.com.