By NEAL WAGNER / City Editor

The Alabaster Board of Education announced it will not change employees’ pay rates and benefits for the first year after the city breaks away to form its own school district.

The announcement came during a Dec. 10 board meeting at the Alabaster Senior Center, during which School Board Coordinator of Administrative Services Dr. Phillip Hammonds said the school system will adopt the Shelby County School System’s pay rates and benefits for the first school year after the city splits from the county school system.

After the first year, the Alabaster Board of Education will set its own pay levels and benefits, Hammonds said. The Alabaster School Board also will honor tenure gained in the Shelby County School System for current Shelby County Schools employees who are at Alabaster schools at the time of the split.

Once the Alabaster Board of Education sets benefits for employees, it will set them “at a minimum of the same level” currently offered by Shelby County Schools, Hammonds said.

School board members said they are working to finalize the city’s separation from the Shelby County School System for the 2013-2014 school year.

In other business, Hammonds also announced the Alabaster School Board could vote on hiring a chief school financial officer during the “first of January.”

The School Board posted the position several weeks ago, and has since received “several” applications, letters and inquiries, Hammonds said.

“Our goal over the next couple of weeks is to make a determination on interviewing dates,” Hammonds said. “We are expecting in the first of January to make a recommendation to the board on that position.”

The chief school financial officer will help to manage the school board account funded by a 1-cent sales tax increase passed by the Alabaster City Council in 2011, and could work with members of the Alabama Legislature during the 2013 regular session.