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The Selma School Board met for the final time before the 2023-24 school year began in what was a loaded agenda on Monday night.

The board heard the FY 22 Audit Presentation to begin the meeting.

After the reading of the audit, the school board learned no problems came from the audit.

“We are thankful that Selma City Schools has an awesome financial department,” Selma City Schools Superintendent Dr. Zickeyous Byrd said. “They do a great job to make sure that everything is in line and that we follow all of the state auditing procedures and all of the state accounting procedures. It just goes to show again a great job from our financial department that we are in full compliance.”

During the Team Selma Recognitions, three students from Selma City Schools FBLA Program were honored for their accomplishments during the 2023 National Leadership Conference of Future Business Leaders of America. It was during the Public Comments that the mood in the meeting started to change.

Mr. and Mrs. Randolph Robinson,  Denise Roy approached the board, requesting they reinstate Stoney Pritchett as the Selma High School Principal.

Randolph said that Prichett was a principal that got in the trenches when it was needed whether it was driving a bus or sweeping the floor.

School board member Mrs.Brenda Randolph-Obomanu said the hiring of the new principal felt like it was a “personal” move. Randolph-Obomanu said she was fully against the hiring of a new principal at Selma High School.

Later in the meeting, the board went into an executive session that lasted over 30 minutes. Coming out of the session there was no action taken during the executive session.

The board then went into new business.

The first section was Personnel Recommendations. During the vote Danielle Wotten was a yes but abstained from items 1.1, 1.2, 2.46, 7.19, and 9.1 Obomanu voted yes and abstained from 1.1 and 9.1. Dr. Tanya Miles voted yes, Board President voted yes and Phylis Houser voted yes. The recommendations passed and a new Selma High Principal was approved.

It was later revealed that Mr. Reginald Glover would be the new Principal at Selma High in the fall and Dr.Byrd said that it will take patience from everyone to allow him to implement his plan.

“We are going to start off with a great school year,” Byrd said. “We know that Mr.Glover is a great administrator. He has been with Selma City Schools for the past 15 years. If I’m not mistaken the majority of his time has been here at Selma City Schools. I think he is going to be a great fit. We ask everyone to be patient and to give Mr. Glover a chance to put his plan in place. The interviewing committee was very very impressed with his plan and what he can bring to the table. We just ask for everyone to give him a chance to put his plans in place.”

The second item for New Business was the District’s Grievance Policy. This policy according to Byrd would be a way to allow parents, teachers, staff, students, and faculty to submit their grievances in a way that things could be taken care of in the most effective way. After reading the policy the board had some concerns about some of the wording and policies on who certain people would report to in certain cases. The board approved the policy pending necessary corrections that needed to be made in the document.

“This actually gives us a clear-cut grievance policy where students, employees, administrators, and parents have an avenue to express any dissatisfaction or grievance that they may have with an employee,” Byrd said. “It gives them clear-cut steps to the pathway or the plan that they want to follow along with pacific timelines as to when they can expect feedback.”

The last item in new business was the Approval of Selma City Schools Job Descriptions and Organizational Chart. 

Quickly, Obomanu asked if the action could be tabled to discuss concerns on the Organizational Chart. It was discussed and said that because the next meeting would be on the second day of school it was not advisable to table the item. The board then voted on the two items separately. For the Job Descriptions, it was a 4-1 passing vote with Wooten voting against it. On the item of the Organizational Chart, it was a 3-2 passing vote with Miles, Houser, and Moss voting for and Obomanu and Wooten voting against.

Byrd addressed the concerns of the organizational chart after the meeting saying that this will be addressed and taken care of.

“The superintendent has the right to organize staff as they see fit,” Byrd said. “Every district has an organizational chart. That chart basically specifies who reports to which person. There were some disagreements as to who certain people should actually report to but in the end, it all got approved.”