Busy but smooth start, GF superintendent says

By Robert Cox

RCox@cherryroad.com

Monday, Aug. 15, marked the first day of school for students in the Green Forest School District and according to superintendent Matt Summers, things were rather uneventful — if somewhat busy.

Matt Summers

“There’s always some speed bumps and things to work out,” said Summers, who estimated enrollment for the 2022-2023 school year at between 1,415-1,425 students. “I think we’re looking at the largest enrollment we’ve ever had in the district. You see it mostly on our buses and in the cafeteria. Those areas are just fuller than they’ve ever been before. Class-wise, we’re still good, still meeting rules and regs for attendance numbers and those type of things.”

It also marked the first meeting of the Green Forest district board during the new school year. The agenda listed numerous items, most of which Summers described as“signature items” requiring the board to approve recurring items, but he highlighted a pair of curricula- based approvals — one of a Lexia Reading program and the other of a core curriculum p r o g r am from IXL — calling them “the biggest pieces.”

“We’ve done that over the years,” Summers said of the reading package, “but now we’re doing it K-12 as part of our incentive to improve reading scores. It’s a program that can meet a child where they are as far as individualized instruction. A teacher can go in and have a child work on reading-type activities. In the middle school, sixth grade does that once a week, where they go in and they’re working on vocabulary, they’re working on different types and facets of reading.”

Summers said the curriculum program, which cost the district $43,000 for grades K-12 and was paid for through funds obtained by the district from the Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief Fund, is intended to help fill a hole in students’ education. “Most of the time, in public schools, after lower elementary, you really don’t work on reading anymore,” Summers said. “Once you’ve learned to read, you just expand and grow. We see that there’s holes in that sometimes and that we need to continue working on our reading skills and skills acquisition.”

The IXL program — also intended for grades K-12 at a cost of $23,600 and also paid for with ESSER funds — is intended to fill a similar purpose.

“A lot of times, you see that a child is a little bit ahead or a little bit behind,” Summers said. “ lets us go in and get them some extra work or practice on their skills. It’s an excellent tool for our teachers to have to address our students. We’ve been using this for quite some time.

“It allows individualized instruction for our kids. The teacher has easy access to pull that.”

The board also gave initial approval to a measure that could provide some extra money for all district staff members. Summers explained that the state legislature approved a new set of guidelines for districts to use ESSER funds to provide staff with “recruitment and retention compensation.”

“The guidelines from the state was $5,000 for certified staff and $2,500 for all others,” Summers said. “We will be submitting our plans to do $5,000 for all contracted employees of the district — bus drivers, cafeteria workers, paraprofessionals — if you have a contract with our district, that’s what we’re looking at.”

Summers explained that the plan — with an estimated price tag of $1.4 million — must still be approved at the state level.

“There’s still a few steps along the way,” Summers said. “We need to submit our plan and that plan needs to be approved.”

If that happens, he said, district employees could receive those funds in November. The district originally planned to use those ESSER funds to help offset the cost of new construction at the school — including new elementary and high school classrooms, along with a remodeling project at the Grim Gym — but in light of rising costs of materials, felt this might be a better use for the time being.

“I don’t think we could complete one of those three projects we were looking at,” Summer said. “So this money was sent back to us with the recommendation that we use it not for building but rather compensation.”

Summers said that was an equally important use of the funds.

“We are going a little bit above and beyond what the state recommended,” Summers said. “We have a belief that it’s a whole-child education process and everyone that works at the school — the bus driver, the nurse, the cafeteria worker, the teachers, the principals — are all part of that.”

The Green Forest board’s next meeting is scheduled for 5 p.m., Monday, Sept. 19, at the Green Forest High School Media Center.