It was almost a clean break Tuesday. Almost, but the remaining string left attached was an extremely important one to leave in place.

During Tuesday’s Selma City Council meeting, Gerald Shirley, superintendent of education for Selma City Schools, and Henry Hicks Sr., president of the Selma City School Board, requested the city transfer the deeds of all the remaining Selma City Schools over to the school system.

It was a request the council agreed to, with the exception of one little clause; a reversionary clause. And it was an extremely smart thing to do.

The background for the transfer request came nearly two years ago when the Selma City School Board found out they did not have “ownership” of the property the new Selma High School was being built on. Go figure.

At that point and time, in order to secure the financing and begin construction, the city council transferred the deed to the Selma City School System.

Everything was then in order, the construction ensued and today, children stock the halls of an amazing new high school.

Now, with the reversionary clause, if the school system decides to close any one of its schools, like it has come close to doing in the past, the property will then revert back to the possession of the city of Selma, thus avoiding any awkward transfer requests in the future.

Well done for making the decision and even better job looking ahead to what might happen.