ALABASTER, Ala. (WIAT) — It is back-to-school week for Alabaster City Schools as students and staff kicked off the new year Thursday.

This is ACS’s 11th year as an independent school district, which consists of five schools and serves about 6,400 students. The halls were once again filled with students eager to start a new year.

“This has probably been one of the best [school year starts] ever. I’ve been to all five campuses with my entire school board. We have made a visit to Creek View, Meadow View, Thompson Intermediate School, Thompson Middle School and Thompson High School,” Superintendent Dr. Wayne Vickers said. “We’ve walked the halls and visited with teachers and administrators. This has been an amazing start to our school year.”

Dr. Vickers said with the Literacy and Numeracy Acts in place, his goal for the school year is to focus on academic success.

“We are working very diligently to make sure that all of our students are performing at the levels that are expected and can move forward,” Dr. Vickers said. “We want to meet them where they are at and make a big push this year and top it off with some summer camps and we feel like we’re going to have our best scores ever.”

Dr. Vickers said, as a superintendent, the big concerns for the first day are to get kids to school, feed them and then get them home safely. He said the schools are starting off on the right foot.

“I’m also incredibly proud of how well-prepared our teachers and school administrators were for this first day of school. They spend countless hours preparing for the start of a school year and that preparation was very apparent today,” Dr. Vickers said.

He did want to remind drivers in the area to be mindful of the back-to-school traffic and to be extra cautious to make sure these students get to and from school safely.