By NEAL WAGNER / Managing Editor

ALABASTER – Children in two houses formerly in unincorporated Shelby County will be able to stay in the Alabaster City School System after they were annexed into the city during a Sept. 2 City Council meeting.

During the meeting, the council voted unanimously to annex residences at 1759 Massey Road, which is in the Camp Branch community, and at 127 Forest Parkway, which is off Alabama 119, into the city.

“Both of these annexation requests have students involved, so they are in a rush to get these done,” Ward 7 Councilman Tommy Ryals said shortly before the council voted to suspend the rules to vote on the pair of annexations during the meeting.

Through a separation agreement between the Shelby County School System and the Alabaster City School System, students zoned for Alabaster schools who do not live in the city limits will be phased out of Alabaster schools over the next several years.

Had Alabaster not annexed the two houses, children in the houses would have been rezoned for their nearest Shelby County schools over the next several years.

“I have been here for 25 years, and I’d like to stay in the school system,” Amanda Kane, who lives at 1759 Massey Road, told council members, noting she has a child who currently attends Alabaster schools and a child who will one day be in the school system.