Parents will have the opportunity to meet with administration from the Alabama State School Board of Education Monday, and discuss the Alabama Plan 2020 College and Career Readiness and Career Tech Education Plan.

Dr. Phillip Cleveland, director of the office of career tech education and workforce development, will be in Selma Monday, June 22 to address parents and students in the Black Belt on the new career tech and readiness plan, which will take effect in the 2013-2014 school year.

The meeting will be held at 6 p.m. in the Selma High School Auditorium.

“We were very fortunate. We found out that the State Board of Education’s Dr. Phillip Cleveland had done some classwork on the 2020 plan with parents in North Alabama and in Tuscaloosa and he agreed to come to Selma,” said Henry Allen with the R.B. Hudson Alumni Association, who is helping to organize the meeting. “He’s been traveling to different parts of the state talking with parents on the 2020 plan, and he’s going to come give his expertise right here in Selma, Ala.”

Allen said it was important for Cleveland to come speak in Selma so local parents and teachers could ask questions and find out more about the State Board of Education’s Plan 2020, which he said will give them the opportunity to gain clarity of their responsibilities for their child to successfully compete the course of study and graduate.

At the meeting, parents will receive information about the changes and new graduation requirements for students interested in a vocational and technical career.

The meeting is free and open to the public. All parents, students, teachers, administrators and residents of the Black Belt are invited. Noted invited guests include: members of the Selma Dallas County Economic Development Authority, the Selma Dallas County Chamber of Commerce, area businesses, Black Belt colleges and universities as well as Alabama State Department Education Board members.

“This type of meeting is a parent meeting, but we’re not just looking for a parent meeting, we’re looking for all the community meeting,” Allen said. “We really need to get some things going on (in Selma City Schools.) We need some parents getting together here so we can get some credibility back. I want to tell my community; right now it doesn’t look good.”

Allen said having the meeting, which will be hosted by Black Belt Parent Leadership Academy and the R.B. Hudson Alumni Association where parents, teachers and the community can get together, will be a very positive thing for both Selma and Selma City Schools.