By NEAL WAGNER /City Editor

Alabaster Interim School Superintendent Dr. Phillip Hammonds recommended the Alabaster School Board consider hiring several “foundational positions” for the upcoming Alabaster School District’s central office during a Jan. 28 special-called work session at the Alabaster Senior Center.

During the work session, Hammonds presented a chart recommending several positions and responsibilities for Alabaster’s future central school office.

“This certainly is a work in progress right now. This will evolve over time,” Hammonds told the School Board. “This will give you a starting point. You’ve got a blank slate and you get to paint it the way you want.”

Hammonds proposed the Alabaster central school office contain a chief school financial officer, a coordinator of curriculum and instruction, a coordinator of exceptional education, an administrator of technology and information services, a child nutrition program supervisor and secretaries.

Hammonds also encouraged the school board to look at hiring employees to handle human resources, student-related matters, bus services, capital improvements, federal programs and building maintenance.

“Hiring (the positions on this list) first will help you to determine what their staff will look like,” Hammonds told the board. “I wanted to get four or five critical positions in place and then branch off from there.

“What is the optimum number of central office staff? I don’t know that,” Hammonds added. “We’ve got to be effective, but as streamlined as possible in the central office.”

The work session came about a week after the board voted to hire Sarita Tapscott as its first chief school financial officer. The board recently closed the application period for the coordinator of curriculum and instruction and coordinator of exceptional education positions, and has already approved a job description for the administrator of technology and information systems position.