By NEAL WAGNER / City Editor

Members of the Alabaster City Council are planning to interview the top five candidates for the vacancy on the Alabaster Board of Education on April 18.

The announcement came after the City Council’s education committee reviewed the 16 applications the city received for the School Board vacancy left when former School Board president Dr. Melanie Shores stepped down on March 14.

“We just looked at the School Board members we’ve got in place right now, and we looked at the skills each one of the candidates would bring to the table,” said City Council President Scott Brakefield. “Our goal is to appoint that position by the first meeting in May.”

The top five candidates for the School Board opening are Jamia Alexander-Williams, Jim Dennis, Derek Henderson, Jim McClain and Eric Starling.

Alexander-Williams is a systems engineer with Wachovia Bank and Wells Fargo, has been involved in booster clubs and parent-teacher organizations with her children’s schools and has been a member of the Alabaster Arts Council.

Dennis is a Thompson High School alumni, and has multiple family members who currently either work at or attend Alabaster schools.

Henderson, a retired State Farm insurance agent, currently is working on a program to improve fourth-graders’ reading skills and is the past president of the THS Quarterback Club.

McClain was an Alabaster City Council member from 2000-2012, was on the Alabaster Water Board from 2005-2012 and was an Alabaster Dixie Youth board member from 1986-2000.

Starling owns a local photography business, and regularly attends and volunteers for city school-related functions.