By NEAL WAGNER / City Editor

The Pelham City Council likely will appoint the city’s first five-member board of education during its Nov. 18 meeting, Council President Rick Hayes said on Nov. 1.

“It definitely won’t be on (the Nov. 4) agenda. I feel pretty strongly it will be on the agenda on the 18^th,” Hayes said. “We want to be sure we dot our Is and cross our Ts and make sure we do everything we should.”

Council members interviewed the top 10 candidates for the school board during an Oct. 29 work session. The top candidates are Angie Hester, Paul Howell, Senitra Cook Blackburn, Rick Rhoades, Amy Bradley, Jane Germek, Gregg Vinson, Dr. Barbara Regan, Jim Sumpter and Brian Long.

Hayes praised the candidates for their willingness to serve and for the ideas they shared during the interview session.

“This is not an easy decision, that’s for sure,” Hayes said. “Hopefully, we can get all of those people involved somehow, even if its not on the school board.”

Hayes previously said the council wanted to appoint the school board in November to give the board all of December to begin plans for the city’s future school system.

The council voted in September to form a Pelham city school board and eventually separate from the Shelby County School system, but the separation date has not yet been finalized.