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By NOAH WORTHAM | Managing Editor

ALABASTER – Alabaster City Schools’ Superintendent Dr. Wayne Vickers has been named as one of three official contenders for the 2024 presidency of the American Association of School Administrators.

Vickers is one of three veteran members of the association that left an AASA Governing Board meeting on Wednesday, Feb. 14 as official candidates for the organization’s highest elected office. Vickers is joined in the presidential candidacy alongside David Law of Minnesota and Tobin Navasio of Montana.

“It is a great honor to be in this category, and it’s also a great honor to stand up for public education across this nation,” Vickers said. “We need to change the narrative that is being sometimes put out there about public schools. We need to make sure that the positive and wonderful things that are going on in public schools are put out there, and we advocate on behalf of all children.”

The AASA is a professional organization that is comprised of more than 10,000 educational leaders across the U.S. According to the AASA’s website, the group aims to develop and support school system leaders through the exchange of ideas; access to professional learning, publications and resources and opportunities to champion initiatives to help transform the future of public education.

“I’m very excited about that because I am a huge proponent of public education,” Vickers said. “That’s been my platform of running is to be an advocate for public schools and public education and working to make sure that the great stories of what’s going on in public schools are being told across the nation.”

According to Vickers, 91 percent of children in the nation attend public schools and he said that he is excited to share that message and to be the greatest advocate he can of public schools in Alabama and the nation.

“We’re very proud of the public schools in our area,” Vickers said. “Alabaster, Pelham and Shelby County are three shining examples of wonderful public schools for children in our state and part of the reason I’m running is to advocate like never before.”

Vickers has been a member of the AASA since 2007 and currently serves on the AASA’s governing board and is in his first term representing Region Five on the executive committee. If elected, his presidency would not conflict with his current responsibilities as superintendent at Alabaster City Schools.

Vickers and the other candidates were selected as one of three presidential candidates following two rounds of paper balloting. Voting for the position began on Feb. 15 and the top voting recipient will serve as the president-elect begging on July 1 and assume the AASA presidency the following July. The results of the election will be announced during the week of March 11.