By NEAL WAGNER / Managing Editor

ALABASTER – Alabaster City School Superintendent Dr. Wayne Vickers will be with the system until at least 2020 after the city’s Board of Education agreed to extend his contract and give him a raise during a special-called May 28 meeting.

During the meeting, School Board members voted unanimously to extend Vickers’ current contract by one year and give him a 3 percent raise.

The School Board voted in April 2014 to extend Vickers’ current contract with Alabaster City Schools through June 30, 2019. As a result of the May 28 extension, Vickers’ contract now runs through June 30, 2020.

Vickers has been with the Alabaster City School System for two years, and came to Alabaster from the Saraland City School System in Mobile County. Before the 3 percent raise, Vickers made $175,000 per year with the Alabaster system.

“We have had two fabulous years with Dr. Vickers. We felt it was appropriate to reward him for a job well done,” School Board President Adam Moseley said after the meeting. “As a young school system, we are further along than anyone could have dreamed. We recognize how important he is to our system.”

Vickers said he is planning to be with the Alabaster system long-term

“Thank you for this, I really appreciate it,” Vickers told School Board members after the vote. “I love what I do, I love being in Alabaster and I look forward to what we are going to do as a school system.”

During the meeting, the School Board also added a longevity incentive to Vickers’ contract, meaning he will earn $10,000 per year for the next five years, but only if he stays with the system through 2020. At the end of five years, Vickers will be eligible to receive an extra $50,000, but will not be eligible to receive the extra money if he leaves the system before 2020.

“It encourages him to stay for a long period of time, it incentivizes him if he does that and it gives us stability over that period of time,” School Board member Ty Quarles said of the longevity incentive.

“Right now, with everything we are doing academically and from a facilities standpoint, continuity is of major importance,” Moseley said.

During a work session before the special-called May 28 meeting, School Board members discussed possibly adding yearly performance incentives to Vickers’ compensation plan, but did not vote on the matter during the meeting. Board members said they plan to revisit the possible performance incentives during a future meeting.