By NEAL WAGNER / City Editor

Alabaster Board of Education member Melanie Shores will preside over the board’s meetings after she was elected as board president 3-2 during the school board’s first meeting.

During the meeting, which was held April 16 at the Alabaster Senior Center, board members Adam Moseley, Linda Church and Shores voted in favor of electing Shores as board president. Board members Ty Quarles and John Myrick voted against Shores’ appointment.

Shores was elected over Quarles, who also was nominated for the board president spot. Quarles was unanimously elected to serve as the board’s vice president.

During the meeting, the school board also:

-Voted unanimously to appoint the Bishop, Colvin, Johnson and Kent, LLC law firm as the school board’s attorneys.

-Discussed the city’s possible separation date from the Shelby County School System. Myrick said the Alabaster school system financially would be able to separate from the county school system by July 2013.

City officials previously said the city’s schools likely will separate from the in July 2013 or July 2014.

“Could we do this in 2013? I think, financially, we can,” Myrick said.

School board attorney Whit Colvin previously said he was working to set up a meeting between the school board and Alabama Association of School Business Officials Executive Director David Smith to discuss the city school board’s finances.

“We need to make a serious effort to meet with Mr. Smith as soon as possible,” Quarles said. “I think the public is anxious to know when we are going to go live. We can’t do that until we get hard data on the financials.”

Becky Goggins, one of the about 10 members of the public who attended the meeting, said she would be in favor of separating “as soon as we are financially sound to do so.”

-Tabled a motion to adopt a regular board meeting schedule. School board members previously recommended meeting every second Monday at 6 p.m. at the Alabaster Senior Center, but Church said the meetings could be held at the Alabaster City Hall Annex.

The board’s next meeting date has not yet been set, and likely will be posted on Cityofalabaster.com, Colvin said.

-Voted unanimously to set up a training session with the Alabama Association of School Boards at 4 p.m. April 25 at the Alabaster Senior Center.

-Voted unanimously to set up a school board mailing address at Alabaster City Hall at 201 First Street North.

“This is a temporary solution until we find a permanent place,” Myrick said.