Selma City Schools considering three options for Clark and Payne elementary schools

Selma City School officials have already decided to move the system’s fifth and sixth graders to the new School of Discovery. Now they must decide the fate of two shrinking elementary schools.

Payne Elementary School with 113 students and Clark Elementary School with 138 students were already well below the state’s recommended minimum size of 200 students.

Superintendent Dr. David Scott told attendees at a town hall meeting at Payne Elementary School on Dec. 1 that the state department of education asked him when he took the job in April what he planned to do about the two shrinking schools. Scott said he asked the state to give Selma City Schools time to figure out a solution.

The decision to move the city’s fifth and sixth graders to the School of Discovery next fall has made the situation more urgent. The move will leave Clark with 79 students and Payne with 101. Both schools have a capacity of at least 500 students, Scott said.

Scott asked those attending the town hall to consider three options for the two elementary schools.

The first option is to combine Clark and Payne. Scott said Clark would be closed because it’s the smaller of the two schools. The new school would have 180 students, close to the recommended minimum size of 200.

The second option is to reassign Clark students to Sophia P. Kingston Elementary School and Payne students to Edgewood Elementary School.

The third option is to reassign students from Clark and Payne to Meadowview, Kingston or Edgewood based on space and proximity.

Scott said the central office staff and the board will study the options and make a decision no later than February 2026.

“We cannot not do anything,” Scott said. “We have to do something.”

Selma City Schools will also have to look at how moving students to the School of Discovery will impact staff and school bus routes, Scott said. Fifth and sixth grade teachers will follow their students to the School of Discovery, but retirements and resignations could create openings that have to be filled, he said.

Scott said he hopes to hire a principal for the School of Discovery by early next year so he or she can have the school ready to receive students by August.

“We have to get this right,” Scott said. “By time school starts in August, everybody must know the plan of what to do.”

Scott also reviewed the system’s performance on the Alabama State Report Card released in November. You can find those results here.

Coincidentally, Scott praised the staff of Clark Elementary for increasing the school’s score from 66 to 78.