Thursday, the Selma City School Board approved payment of an invoice to Wallace Community College-Selma, apparently closing the book once and for all on the Early College program.

For months, the two sides have disputed a final invoice, some on the school board questioning whether or not it should even be the responsibility of the school board to pay for a service that was initially supposed to be funded by grants.

In the end, the board used funds left over from some of those grants to pay the final invoice. So much for that.

But, what we have not heard from anyone — either those elected to the Selma City School Board or those at Wallace Community College-Selma — is a clear reason of why the program failed and why students at Selma High School no longer have an opportunity to take part in this tremendous program.

What we also haven’t heard is an apology from those in positions of leadership; an apology to those students who no longer have the option, an apology for letting this program floundered and ultimately collapse.

If those explanations or apologies are not forthcoming, then we would have at least appreciated a plan, an idea, of how to get this program going once again. But, maybe there just isn’t the want to do so. Maybe this is just a program that some are thankful has run its course and ended. We hope those who think that way are few and far between.

In editorials in the past, we have applauded the Selma City School Board for their decisions for their leadership and we have congratulated Wallace Community College-Selma for the tremendous impact they have had on the Black Belt region and on the lives of their students.

But, the failure of this program is exactly that — a failure. It is a shared failure and a solution must be a shared solution.

A program such as this Early College program is needed and is one that had good results.

Let’s hope the mistakes made by some that led to the collapse of this program are lessons learned and never made again if such a program is ever brought back to Selma.