Superintendent wants to renovate School of Discovery, turn it into fine arts magnet school

Selma City Schools is hoping to make needed renovations to the School of Discovery property and turn it into a fine arts magnet school.

As part of a transformation plan presented recently to the Selma School Board by Selma Superintendent Zickeyous Byrd, the School of Discovery Preparatory Academy would be renovated in the next year to reopen in the 2024-2025 school year as a school for fine arts.

Byrd plans to apply for funding from the Historical Commission to restore the almost 100-year-old building on Washington Street for use by the district for arts education. The building is already on the National Register of Historic Places.

The School of Discovery building had been used as a sixth grade-only school for many years, following a popular national model of separating the delicate age of sixth graders from elementary and middle school.

But Byrd said test scores show a drop in academic achievement by Selma’s sixth graders, which he attributes to moving them too often from elementary school to a separate sixth grade for only one year and then into RB Hudson Middle School for two years before going to Selma High.

This school year, Selma’s sixth graders have moved more than ever. Due to mold at the aging School of Discovery building, the teachers and students were moved this school year to the closed Knox Elementary School. Then Knox was hit by the Jan. 12 tornado, and the sixth graders were moved to an unused wing of RB Hudson Middle School, where they are finishing out this school year.

If the board approves Byrd’s plan he calls Rebuilding Plan: Reignite, next year’s sixth graders will stay at their elementary schools for another year. The transformation plan includes restructuring all elementary schools to be K-6. The students will then move straight to middle school.

Byrd thinks they will perform better academically if the number of changes is reduced.