THE SELMA TIMES-JOURNAL

Today ushers in a new era at Selma High School, even though the school’s new principal got started a day earlier than his first day on the job.

Dr. Bruce O. Dozier Sr. spent Tuesday morning meeting with the former principal, Roosevelt Wilson, going over the finer points of administration, and even had his first discipline problem to deal with &045; a student with a cell phone in chemistry class.

But his first problem he doesn’t see as a problem. In comparison to what he is facing, Dozier said he knows it’s important to pace himself.

He is inheriting a Selma High School that did not make Adequate Yearly Progress, due to a questionable dropout rate, low reading levels, and a high percentage of seniors not passing the mandated exit exam, school officials reported.

The student enrollment is 1,012. As an indicator of poverty, there were 78.2 percent of SHS students on free or reduced price meals last year.

According to the Alabama Department of Education, during 2005-2006, 43.1 percent of teachers at SHS held master’s degrees. More than 32 percent held bachelor’s degrees.

Among SHS students planning to attend college, the average score on the ACT Test in 2006 was 16.9. The state average is 20.2. The national average is 21.1, according to the state department.

Dozier worked for 22 years as a math teacher before doing a three-year stint at Selma High teaching math. He returned to Selma Middle CHAT Academy where, for the past 10 years, has served as assistant principal. He has also worked for 20 years as an adjunct professor of mathematics at Concordia College.

Dozier received his bachelor’s degree from Morris Brown College in Atlanta, and his graduate degree from Alabama State University.

He also holds a doctorate in theology from Andersonville Seminary in Georgia, and is pastor of New Peace Baptist Church in Selma, and a member of Omega Psi Phi Fraternity, Inc.

He has been married to Catherine V. Dozier for the past 34 years. She is the librarian at Edgewood Elementary School. They have four children, Bruce Jr., Cathryn, Brian and Candace.