The proposed plan to bring the Selma City School System its first early learning center is one step closer to becoming a reality.

The Selma City School Board announced Thursday it will more forward with its plan to transform Byrd Elementary to an early learning center. Representatives of the Head Start Program and the Office of School Readiness, organizations that will be involved in the operating the school, presented details about the upcoming center at the work session.

“We’ve been working diligently on it, and we’re ready to move forward with it,” Larry DiChiara, the acting Selma superintendent of education, said.

During a school board meeting in May, DiChiara introduced the state intervention team’s idea to use Byrd Elementary as an early learning center. He said the center would benefit the system’s pre-school children while eliminating an ongoing financial issue in which pre-schools receive $1.4 million of the total $2.8 million in Title I funds.

The Alabama Department of Education expects preschools to get no more than 15 percent.

As a result of the grand transformation, current Byrd Elementary students would be transferred to Knox Elementary.

News of the transformation drew crowds of troubled Byrd Elementary School teachers to recent school board meetings and work sessions, expressing their worries about their jobs, benefits, tenure and salaries.

State intervention team member Nicey Eller addressed those concerns Thursday.

Eller said all parties involved have agreed on a funding formula that would allow current Selma City School employees to remain employed in the school system. The Head Start Program will fund 79 percent of their salaries, while Office of School Readiness will fund the remaining 21 percent.

DiChiara said Head Start Program representative Henry Moore informed him the Head Start Program would not be considered to be the teachers’ employer if the program funded less than 80 percent of their salaries.

Eller said all Byrd Elementary teachers have already been transferred to Knox Elementary with the exception of two who requested to move to another school. She also said current Byrd teachers at Knox will be allowed to teach the same grade level they taught at Byrd Elementary.

Curriculum alignment, coaching for instructional staff, standardized assessment procedures and approved instructional materials for all disciplines in the classroom will be provided and implemented, Eller said.

Once the Head Start Program has finalized its budget, OSR will award grant money to compensate for the difference in salaries.

“I think this is going to be, not only a state model but possibly a national model of how to coordinate all children’s service for 4-year-olds into a very strong quality program for children,” Gina Ross, the commissioner of the Department of Children Affairs, said.

After board approval on June 10, all affected teachers, staff and parents will officially be notified in writing.