In March, Selma Superintendent of Education Donald Jefferson proposed not renewing the contact of Selma High School principal Wanda McCall due to poor school performance. In the resulting vote, the Selma City School Board went against Jefferson’s recommendation and approved a new contract.

In a school board meeting later, a group of “concerned parents” came before the board to register complaints about the environment at Selma High School, the lack of a working relationship with faculty and administration and the school’s culture.

During the meeting, the board responded by saying they would watch the situation and appreciated the comments from the “concerned parents.”

In a move this Thursday, the board approved $7,000 to fund a faculty retreat for some Selma High faculty aimed at correcting those problems.

In a request by McCall, and approved by a majority of the board, the faculty will attend a two-day retreat at the Hilton Garden Inn entitled “Building Stronger Teams and Better Relationships.”

“The retreat will give Selma High School faculty an opportunity to participate in team building activities. We will also have an opportunity to review test results in order to prepare for classroom instruction,” McCall wrote in a request letter to Dr. Jefferson and submitted to the board. “Our ultimate goal is to improve the school’s culture by generating enthusiasm, a sense of ownership for teachers and students in order to promote working together as a team to become a high performing school.”

According to Jefferson, the funding for this retreat comes from a fund designated for school improvement projects, which school officials declared this retreat to be.

“The funds are outlined as to how they can be used,” Jefferson said, adding he had no plans to attend the retreat. “This is just one of the things they could do with those funds. Might be some workshops here and there as well.”

The approved request pays for a one-night stay at the Hilton Garden Inn for new teachers and presenters, the conference rooms and food for 73 faculty members.

For a majority of the board, the funds, while a lot for a board facing tough financial times, are seen as a good investment.

“It is money well spent,” board member Frank Chestnut said. “They are working to pull the culture of Selma High School together so that they can be on one page.”

For board member Brenda Randolph-Obomanu, the retreat must be productive.

“This is an effort — I feel — to change the climate at Selma High because we have to do that,” she said. “We have to get everyone on the bandwagon; all the faculty, all the administrators, all the faculty — because we have got to change it.”

Board member Holland Powell, the lone board member to vote against the expense, said he doesn’t contest the need to promote improvements at Selma High School, but rather the cost and location.

“We have this problem at Selma High School and we need to solve it,” Powell said. “The only reason they (school administrators) gave us for going to Montgomery and not spending this $7,000 with Selma merchants and using it to pay taxes here … is so that they could feed everybody.”

Powell also brought up the cost in terms of the cost per Selma High School student.

“It’s over $6 per student,” Powell said in strongly opposing the motion. “It’s just bad spending habits and we are allowing just $15 per student for books … but we are going to approve spending half of that so their teachers can have a spend-the-night party.

“That’s just wrong on every level.”

The two-day retreat begins Sunday, July 31 and continues to Monday, Aug. 1.