By NEAL WAGNER / City Editor

Pelham City Council members said they were pleased with the number of school board applicants they had collected as of Oct. 7, and said the résumés represented a wide range of skillsets.

During the council’s Oct. 7 pre-council works session, Council President Rick Hayes said the city had collected 21 applications to serve on the city’s inaugural five-member school board “as of 5:31 p.m.” The deadline for applying for the school board was midnight on Oct. 7.

“We had hoped to get at least 15 good applicants, and now we’ve topped 20,” Hayes said. “We will have a good group to choose between. Hopefully (the school board) will provide representation from across the city.

“We are very happy we had so many people put their applications in,” Hayes added. “This is a critical board. It’s very important.”

Councilman Ron Scott said the city received “some outstanding candidates” for the school board.

The council voted unanimously last month to form a Pelham city school board and eventually separate from the Shelby County School system.

Pelham leaders previously said they were looking for a wide range of backgrounds and skillsets among those chosen to serve on the school board.

After finalizing the applications after Oct. 7, Hayes said the council will review the applications and then begin scheduling interviews with the candidates.

“Obviously, those will be public interviews for everybody,” Hayes said. “We need to start that process as soon as possible.”