Selma City Schools break ground on $17M School of Discovery

Selma City Schools broke ground on the new School of Discovery, the first new construction of a school in a decade. 

Dignitaries held a ceremony on Feb. 9 to recognize the start of construction of the new School of Discoverythat is being built next to parts that remain of the former school on Washington Street, including Pickard Auditorium, which will get a complete renovation. 

Selma City Schools Superintendent Dr.Zickeyous Byrd said School of Discovery has been repurposed and “re-imagined to be a state of the art performing arts magnet academy.” 

Byrd explained that the middle school will focus on “two and three denominational art, music, dance theater and so much more.” There will also be computer and science labs. 

The curriculum will implement “project and problem-based teaching and learning,” Byrd said. He added that this method will prepare students for a stronger high school and post-secondary experience. 

Byrd called the groundbreaking of the new School of Discovery the “beginning of a new era of how we educate children in our community.” He explained that there will be “highly visible instructional spaces” and students in grades sixth through eighth will learn better and get greater meaning from “connecting content that has been typically taught as separate subjects.” 

There will be a focus on STEAM education and Byrd said the students will not only have the tools they need to learn, but they will get plenty of “hands on and mind on education.” 

This construction project will cost $17.8 million,according to Byrd. Selma City Planning and Development Director Danielle Wooten, who is also a member of the Selma City School Board, joined Byrd in thanking the local, state and federal government for providing the funding. Wooten added that because of that funding “this board and this school system is able to do this debt free.” 

In fact, most of the funds are coming from one-time COVID relief allocations called Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief funds. 

The estimated time for construction is 18 months depending on weather. That puts the completion date in June or July 2025.