Selma Superintendent offers highlights of two-year term

Selma City Schools Superintendent Dr. Zickeyous Byrd called his two-year term at the helm “honor of a lifetime” as he outlined in a speech on Monday his accomplishments and listed improvements needed for the district to reach even more success after he leaves for retirement on Oct. 1. 

Byrd addressed the Rotary Club of Selma to present highlights that include large test score improvements, better student attendance, upgrades to school facilities and the establishment of a “mini police department” in the school system to increase safety. 

“We were able to make some tremendous strides in ensuring that not only our students receive a high-quality education, but we’ve also been able to make sure they are provided with a safe environment as well as improving our facilities,” Byrd told the club that meets at Cornerstone Presbyterian. 

Selma City Schools reported a 25 percentage point improvement in third-grade reading scores, which only 12 districts in the state accomplished. Selma had a rate of 59 percent third graders reading at grade level in 2022 and pushed that up to 84 percent in 2023. 

The district put in place a strategy to reduce absenteeism and saw a 10-percentage point improvement. Byrd said that was drastically better, but the absentee rate is still 20 percent, when it needs to be below 5 percent. 

The strategy included hosting parenting classes to share the importance of attendance, instituting more engaging programs to make school fun so the kids would want to come to school and leaning into the court system to punish parents that are frequent offenders, Byrd said. A truancy officer also knocked on doors and, for this year, they got a grant to hire two more truancy officers to increase boots on the ground. 

Increased crime in neighborhoods had the district strategizing ways to provide safer campuses. Byrd struggled last year to partner with the police department to provide School Resource Officers, so the district got a $350,000 grant in April from the Alabama Department of Education to hire three SROs and provide needed equipment and vehicles. 

Byrd said it was a dream of his to have a district-run law enforcement department to combat crime issues that trickle into the schools, and this is at no cost to the district or the city of Selma.  

“Our students are engaged in activities they should not be engaged in and we have to make sure that we continue to educate them as well as their parents about the dangers of engaging in those activities,” Byrd said. 

Selma City Schools is spending $25 million to modernize and improve facilities, from new roofs, windows, HVAC systems and floors to major renovations at Knox Elementary and a new School of Discovery campus that should be complete next year, Byrd said. 

The district got a $1.5 million federal grant for electric buses to add to the fleet that will run for in-town transportation while the gas or diesel versions will be used for longer distance trips like to football games and field trips, he added. 

This year, there are new rules in place that have older students using clear backpacks and younger students banned from bringing cell phones to school, which drew applause from the Rotary crowd. While elementary and middle schoolers can’t bring phones, high schoolers can but have to put their phones in lockers during class. They can text between classes and at lunch. 

Byrd, who announced his retirement during a school board meeting on July 31, said he’s worked hard to be transparent with staff, teachers and parents and used social media to communicate with the community. He hopes the teachers will stay motivated and encouraged as they fight on the battlelines every day teaching children in a challenging environment. 

Byrd also hopes parents can learn to enforce the rules at home and hold their children accountable for their actions moving forward, which he finds is not today’s parenting style.  

As for retirement, Byrd said he looks forward to sleeping in and drinking lots of coffee while watching shows he hasn’t had time to watch from a list he started that includes classics Matlock and In the Heat of the Night. He also plans to visit his grown daughters. One is starting her first year as a teacher this August.