Alabaster council interviewing 5 for BOE spot

Published 2:38 pm Tuesday, April 12, 2016

The Alabaster City Council will interview five candidates for a seat on the Alabaster Board of Education at City Hall on Tuesday, April 19. (File)

The Alabaster City Council will interview five candidates for a seat on the Alabaster Board of Education at City Hall on Tuesday, April 19. (File)

By NEAL WAGNER / Managing Editor

ALABASTER –Alabaster City Council members will interview five individuals who have submitted applications to serve on the city’s Board of Education on Tuesday, April 19, council members announced on March 11.

From February through March, the council accepted applications from city residents interested in serving on the school board, drawing interest from five applicants.

Over the past few years, the City Council has reappointed School Board President Adam Moseley through June 2017, School Board member Ty Quarles through June 2018, School Board member John Myrick through June 2019 and School Board member Derek Henderson to a term ending in 2020.

BOE member Linda Church, who is an original member of the School Board, currently is serving a term ending in June of this year.

Church has reapplied for the position, and four other Alabaster residents are also vying for the spot, which will be appointed this month and will serve on the School Board through 2021.

Church, Alvin Jackson, Jamia Alexander Williams, John Kilpatrick and former Alabaster School Board president Melanie Shores have applied for the BOE seat.

The City Council will begin interviewing the candidates at 6 p.m. on April 19, and will interview one candidate each 30 minutes. All interviews will take place in the conference room on the first floor of Alabaster City Hall, and are open to the public.

The following is background information on each candidate vying for the BOE seat:

-Jackson is a graduate of Jones Valley High School in Birmingham and of Jackson State University in Jackson, Miss. He currently works as an operations lead agent for Delta Airlines in Birmingham, where he handles staffing, cargo load verification and several other matters.

-Williams earned a bachelor’s degree from Alabama A&M University and a master’s degree from Strayer University, and currently works as a system’s engineer for Wachovia Bank and Wells Fargo. Williams has been a member of multiple parent-teacher organizations in the city over the past several years.

-Kilpatrick is a graduate of the University of Alabama, where he earned a degree in operations management. He currently works with Southern Craft Consulting, and worked as a brand manager for Alabev from 2006-2013.

-Church holds a master’s in educational supervision and a master’s in elementary education – both from the University of Montevallo – and a bachelor’s degree in elementary education from the University of Virginia. She previously served as an elementary program specialist and a teacher with the Shelby County School System and was an education specialist with the Alabama Department of Education from 2005-2010.

-Shores was one of the original members of the city’s School Board in 2012, and served as the board’s president until she stepped down in March 2013, citing health issues. She holds a bachelor’s, master’s, master’s of mathematics and doctorate from Auburn University, and currently works as a professor at UAB.