Board’s action to determine need

There has been a lot of talk over the past year about constructing a new high school in Selma.

On Thursday, the Selma City School Board took the initial proper step in determining the need.

A vote, as well as a lot of debates and arguments in City Hall, might have been avoided if the City School Board had been allowed to act first.

The school board hired a national engineering firm to perform a three-week assessment of the high school to determine the current condition of the structure.

The assessment will cost $13,700 – far less than the $1 million the council considered spending on a piece of property, reportedly for a site for a new high school.

The assessment may indeed show the need for Selma to build a new facility.

If that’s the case, the school board should then determine where that building will be located.

The assessment could also show that renovations would make the building safe and efficient for use as an educational facility.

Either way, it will be the City School Board that makes that determination.

It’s amazing what can be accomplished when our elected officials – and those appointed – take seriously their responsibility to be efficient in the spending of public funds.