Today, you read about the mid-year testing scores for the Selma City School System in reading and mathematics.

Superintendent Dr. Avis Williams said it best that the school system has a lot of work to do.

The entire school system has been steadily digging itself out of a time where the system was once under state direction.

Williams and the rest of Team Selma have a long road ahead, but they have some achievable goals.

With the highest scoring school in the system scoring just 56 percent proficiently in reading and the highest scoring schools in math just at 52 percent, we are slightly over halfway proficient in vital and core driven education in Selma City Schools.

The high school scores did not even have a proficient scoring in mathematics in the entire school.

Yes, this is a long road, but it is one that we believe Williams and the rest of the Selma City School staff can achieve.

By the Spring 2019 semester, Williams said she hopes to improve the academic performance of all students in reading and mathematics at least one proficiency level and quartile based on fall assessment results.

She also hopes to decrease the percentage of students scoring in average low and below average by 10 percent in reading in mathematics on state assessments based on the fall assessment results.

We believe this team can turn things around. It has been a steady process of rethinking how teaching is done in the school system and focusing on the positives while working on fixing the negatives.

We believe Team Selma can achieve the task before them.