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The Selma City Schools Board of Education has selected three from its group of five finalists as potential candidates for the district’s new superintendent.

On Tuesday, the board met to discuss the finalists’ scorecard that were chosen for the superintendent role based on how they interviewed. During the meeting, they came to a decision of which candidates moved up within the next phase of the search facilitated by the Alabama Association of School Boards. 

The chosen candidates were Dr. David Scott of Tuscaloosa, Mrs. Taurus Smith of Selma and Dr. Davion Lewis from South Bend, Indiana. Just before the candidates were officially released, the board discussed all the candidates and their qualifications as the board verified references and vetted the candidates before moving forward with the top three finalists. 

SCS Board President Johnny Moss III told the board members that he would personally reach out to Susan Salter, lead searcher and consultant of the AASB superintendent search, to make sure the candidates still are interested in moving forward with the process and he said that he still encourages all members to do their extensive research on the candidates so by the next meeting, they can narrow the selection down even further. 

Moss said that the result of the meeting was a firm decision that needed no second thought from him nor the board. He said the only change was that the board added another candidate to two of the candidates they knew for sure that they wanted to stay in the running.

“Initially, I thought we would come in here and select two candidates, but there were some conversations had, and I think out of fairness, it gives us a chance to go back and check the references for one of the candidates, and as a board, since we did have to have this conversation publicly, it was the first time we had ever shared any of this information with each other. So, now, we have another opportunity to check not only the previous candidates’ references, but the candidate that we just added as well. Overall, I think it was a good decision to choose three candidates and then once the vetting process is over, we will move forward hopefully and be able to select that final candidate or that next superintendent at the next meeting that’s happening next Tuesday,” Moss said.

Moss also said he wanted the public to know that no matter who is selected as the next superintendent, he wants them to know that this process was very transparent, fair and equitable for the Selma City Schools.

The next SCS board meeting is Tuesday, Feb. 11.