Selma school board gets first look at candidates for superintendent role

The Selma City Schools board on Tuesday received a list of five candidates to consider as the next superintendent of the district during a meeting at Selma High.

The previous Superintendent, Zickeyous Byrd, retired on Sept. 30 and an interim leader, Darryl Aikerson, took over in early October to give the board time to identify and hire a new permanent leader within the required 180 days.

The candidates, four of which are men and one woman, mostly have superintendent or other leadership experience at other districts.

Susan Salter, Alabama Association of School Boards who helped in the search, presented their qualifications to the board. 

The first candidate is Dr. Elgin L. Dixon, former superintendent of Twiggs County Schools in Georgia and currently coordinator of Laurens County Department of Public Health. He has been an assistant superintendent and director of operations as well as a former principal, guidance counselor and teacher. He is known for having strong financial skills and increasing the graduation rate over five years from 46% to 95%.

Dr. Titus Hines has been superintendent of Perry County Schools in Hattiesburg, Miss., since 2022 and of Lawrence County Schools in Mississippi for two years before that. He has served as a principal and teacher and is known for having strong people skills and building relationships. He achieved high enrollment in advance classes and dual enrollment. 

Dr. Davion Lewis of South Bend, Indiana, is assistant superintendent of South Bend Community Schools, which is a district that is a similar size to Selma. He also has experience working in a district with similar issues to Selma, including underperforming schools and students coming from high poverty. An accomplishment includes improving academics by increasing grade levels and attendance. 

Dr. David Scott is the director of curriculum and instruction at Tuscaloosa County Schools since 2021 and served as head of professional learning before that for two years. He works as an adjunct professor at community colleges and is part of accreditation teams. He has been a principal and leader of strategic planning efforts. 

The final candidate and only woman on the list is Taurus Smith, who is familiar to Selma City Schools after working in the district as a teacher for 10 years and then a principal for 10 years. She is currently education administrator for the state Department of Education’s Office of School Improvement since 2020. Smith works with schools to develop strategies. 

Salter will next set up interviews with each candidate for the board to meet with them for a day to get to know them. If don’t like one of them after interviews, Salter said they can recruit to interview other candidates they find.

Before selecting candidates, Selma’s school board, as part of the early process, hired New Orleans-based consulting firm K. Allen Consulting, a firm founded by Selma native Krystal Hardy Allen, to gather the community’s thoughts on the next superintendent. 

The firm hosted a series of community roundtables and town hall meetings for families and community members, however, no community members attended the sessions.

Other input avenues were given. The final report from the consulting firm says a student focus group was held with 49 students from Selma High and RB Hudson taking part. A family focus group drew 20 participants. A survey received 172 responses from the public. And there were four opportunities for employees to give input in virtual focus groups and three staff members attended.

When hiring Byrd two years ago, the board conducted public interviews with the top candidates. School Board President Johnny Moss said in October that they plan to do that again during this hiring process. 

Selma is one of several districts in the Black Belt looking for a new school leader. Montgomery and Demopolis are in a superintendent search and Dallas County will be after June when the contract for their superintendent, Anthony Sampson, ends.