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Alabaster City Schools Superintendent Dr. Wayne Vickers recently met with students from across all ACS schools to hear their valuable feedback on how to improve the schools. (For the Reporter/Jason Gaston)

By NOAH WORTHAM | Staff Writer

ALABASTER – Alabaster City Schools Superintendent Dr. Wayne Vickers met with students from across all ACS schools to hear their valuable feedback on how to improve the schools.

Dr. Vickers met with students from Meadow View Elementary, Creek View Elementary, Thompson Intermediate, Thompson Middle and Thompson High School during the 10th annual Student Advisory Council meetings which began on Tuesday, Nov. 7.

“It is the most meaningful interaction that you can have because we get them in there, and we have one-on-one conversations,” Vickers said.

Vickers also holds group meetings and ACS staff gets involved with the program as well. According to Vickers, the Student Advisory Council meetings promote an atmosphere that makes students comfortable with sharing.

“To me that’s the most authentic type of communication, when a student tells you, ‘Hey, on the bathroom stall on the third-grade hall—the third girls restroom—the latch doesn’t work and we have to crawl out,” Vickers said. “It means something because then the next time we meet with them it’s, ‘Hey, you all got that fixed. You all took care of that.’”

The advisory council also gives the ACS staff a chance to not only hear requests from the students for improvements but also advice on where to save money or better use resources.

“When we were building the high school, the student advisory (council) are the ones that talked to me about lockers,” Vickers said. “They said, ‘We don’t use them, so don’t waste your money. We don’t use them—our moms buy them in ninth grade and we don’t even know where they are.’”

Vickers said he finds his experience with the council to be rewarding.

“It gives me a chance to sit down and talk with them and they understand who I am and what I do,” Vickers said. “They also realize how important they are because every bit of our school system points (toward) making sure our students are successful and giving them that voice gives them that opportunity.”