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Summer has officially started in Selma as Selma City Schools kicked off the fifth year of their Summer Learning program called XSEL.

Selma City Schools Superintendent Zickeyous Byrd was part of the first day of the Summer Learning Program, talking about how the first day was successful.

“We are excited about the opportunity to engage with our scholars for summer enrichment and learning,” Byrd said. “ As I’ve said many times before, it’s our mission to keep our scholars engaged with us and the opportunities we strive to offer as much as possible and this includes after school and during the summer! We have over 1000 students who have registered for summer learning and day 1 started great! We’re looking forward to a fun-filled and engaging academic summer!”

Selma City Schools Chief Academic Officer Dr. Ozela Ford said the first day of Summer Learning brought a lot of excitement to those who attended.

“The excitement around the school district has been phenomenal,” Ford said. “The teachers are excited, our principals are excited as well. One of our schools had their capes on because their theme is XSEL with superheroes this summer. That was at Clark. They had their capes on and they welcomed their students in this morning.”

At Edgewood, they were just as excited to get things going for the summer.

“They got their picture taken because their theme is the Magical Summer that XSEL will bring. So the excitement from faculty, staff, and teachers is just overwhelming.”

Despite the summer learning program kicking off on Monday, parents can still enroll their scholars in the program by noon today. Dr. Ford said she wants to encourage the parents of middle school scholars and high school scholars to enroll their children before the deadline.

“The deadline is noon,” Dr. Ford said. “For elementary schools, because of reaching our capacity already we have cut off that link but if we have an elementary scholar who needs to attend of course we’re not going to turn anyone away. If their school is at capacity, we have space at some of our other elementary schools so of course we will accommodate. For our middle and high school scholars, we are really pushing and encouraging our parents to bring them out because there is opportunities in enrichment, acceleration, dual enrollment, remediation as well as promotion. It is important that we get our middle and high school scholars and bring them in on the summer learning program. In the end, everyone wins.”

The athletic department for Selma City Schools also took part in the Summer Learning Program.

“The athletes to be eligible must pass a sportsmanship course,” Dr. Ford said. So, we are offering that course through the summer as well as other courses our athletes will go through to make sure we are not only teaching them about sportsmanship but we are teaching them to be leaders. The name of this new pathway that we are offering through the athletic department is leading leaders in Summer XSEL. It’s a new pathway that we are offering our student-athletes.”