After serving as principal of Selma High School for the last year and three months, Aubrey Larkin is moving on from Selma City Schools.

Larkin, who has been with the Selma City School System for the last 12 years, has accepted a job with the Hale County School System.

“It is extremely bittersweet,” Larkin said. “I’m excited and thankful for this new opportunity; however, Selma is my home. I worked in the district for 12 years. I’m a product of that district, and to not get up and go to Selma City Schools is different.”

Larkin’s last day will be Friday, and he will start his new job as curriculum and instruction director Monday. Larkin said he is excited about the new opportunity, but Selma will always be a special place to him.

“They will always have a place in my heart. I’ve enjoyed every second that I was there,” Larkin said.

“I will always love Selma City Schools, and I will always love Selma High School and Clark Elementary, but this is a wonderful opportunity that God has blessed me with. I’m just grateful that he chose me.”

Larkin said the decision to accept the job was far from easy.

“It was a decision that I did not take lightly. I prayed, meditated and asked God to lead me, and when I got that peace and assurance that it is time to move forward, I had to accept,” Larkin said.

“This is just an opportunity and advancement that I just truly feel thankful that God blessed me with.”

Larkin started his career with Selma City Schools as a third grade teacher at Clark Elementary School.

“I just remember the excitement when I had my first classroom, just working with those students and falling in love with that community over there in GWC,” Larkin said.

“I just fell in absolute love with them, and they fell in love with me. I can recount numerous occasions where we would not only have events in my classroom, but we would also go out, and it would be nothing for me to sit on the front porch and just talk to my parents and just get to know them.”

After serving as a teacher at Clark for five years, Larkin took the role as principal.

He spent the next five years leading Clark to new heights before being offered the job as principal of Selma High School in June 2014. Larkin said he is most proud of reading and math test scores at Clark and seeing his first class of seniors walk across the stage at graduation last May.

“It was very, very rewarding to see those same little children that I had at Clark now as high schoolers when I transitioned to the high school. You could really see the hard work that we had put into them along with their parents on the elementary level,” Larkin said.

“My passion for Selma will never die. My experiences and things I have learned through all facets of my career there I will hold whole-heartedly. I have enjoyed my tenure there.”

Dr. Angela Mangum, superintendent of Selma City Schools, was not available for comment Monday.