ALABASTER – Alabaster City Schools held its inaugural career fair all day on Friday, April 25, for recent or soon-to-be college graduates who are employment with the school system.

“Hopefully, we’ll find potential new employees, and some of them will be invited back for a more intensive interview at a later date,” ACS Human Resources Coordinator Latanza Harrison said.

Harrison said recent graduates and seniors from universities all over the Southeast traveled to the former Thompson High School location on Warrior Way to speak with administrators and faculty from all Alabaster schools.

Harrison said there will be a few job openings this upcoming school year, and she said she hopes the Career Fair will yield good results.

Overall, Harrison said approximately 83 potential hires registered for the career fair.

“It shows that they are really interested in Alabaster,” Harrison said. “They want to work for us and live here.”

Because the old THS location is currently sitting empty, Harrison said ACS chose that as the career fair venue for more space.

“We have limited space in our central office, so we can accommodate more interviews here,” Harrison said.

THS Principal Wesley Hester said he supported the idea of a career fair and was glad to have a hand in selecting the school system’s future educators.

“This is a great recruiting opportunity for Alabaster City Schools and for me to contribute to the system by helping bring in the best and brightest young teachers,” Hester said. “Hiring the best teachers is one of the most important things we do as school leaders.”

By the end of the day, Hester said he would have an idea of who he wanted to hire at THS.

“I think we’ve had a great turnout and great results,” Hester said.

James Mitchell, who graduated from the University of Alabama at Birmingham that afternoon, said he was hoping to find a job teaching secondary social studies.

“I wanted to make myself known, and hopefully come out with a good feeling about a job,” Mitchell said. “(Alabaster) has a small-town feel, but the schools are bigger and you get to work with a diverse group of students.”