By NEAL WAGNER / Managing Editor

ALABASTER – Alabaster City Schools has seen an overall increase in its number of students – especially at Thompson High School – over the past several years, despite many students outside the city transitioning to other schools through a zoning agreement with the Shelby County School System, ACS Superintendent Dr. Wayne Vickers told City Council members during a recent update.

Vickers spoke with council members at a Jan. 31 work session, during which he gave city leaders an update on the overall status of the school system and the changes it has seen since it formed during the summer of 2013.

From the 2012-2013 school year, which was the year before ACS began operations, to the current school year, ACS has seen an increase in total enrollment from 6,121 students to 6,165 students.

Enrollment numbers for Creek View Elementary, Meadow View Elementary and Thompson Intermediate have fallen since the 2012-2013 school year, the enrollment at Thompson Sixth Grade Center has stayed the same and enrollment numbers at Thompson Middle School and Thompson High School have risen.

Since 2012, CVES’s enrollment fell from 973 to 878, MVES decreased from 951 to 884, TIS went from 976 to 901, TSGC stayed even at 488, TMS grew from 959 to 1,003 and THS grew from 1,774 to 2,011.

“People want to be here, they want to be in our school system. When we had 15 students lined up to enroll when we came back from the Christmas break,” Vickers said. “Most of the people who are moving here have children in the sixth, seventh and eighth grade range, so that’s why you see the increase at the middle and high schools.”

When ACS split from the Shelby County School System, it worked out a zoning plan with the county system to gradually transition out students who lived outside Alabaster city limits but were zoned for the city’s schools.

Beginning with the 2014-2015 school year, students in certain grades living outside the city who were zoned for Alabaster schools began to transition to schools in the Shelby County School System. The plan affected new grade levels each year, and the transition process is now almost complete.

Since 2012, the Saddle Lake Farms subdivision has annexed into the city from unincorporated Shelby County, which contributed to some of the growth, Vickers said.