Extra money due in November for Green Forest school staff

Staff members in the Green Forest School District should receive some extra compensation in November after a vote by the district board during its meeting Sept. 19.

The extra money, officially tagged as “recruitment and retention compensation,” was first approved by the board in August after Arkansas school districts received a new set of guidelines from the state legislature regarding the use of funds received under the Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief program.

Matt Summers

“We passed it at the board level [in August],” said superintendent Matt Summers. “What happened next was, we submitted our plan and it was approved at the state level. This is just the official documentation of it.”

The state guidelines suggested a one- time payment of $5,000 to all certified staff and $2,500 to all other staff members, but the Green Forest board decided to give all staff members the same compensation. At $5,000 apiece, the total comes to approximately $1.4 million.

On the downside, the district had initially planned to use those same funds to help finance renovation projects on campus — particularly the Grim Gym and the Rock Gym — but the legislature’s decision forced a different path.

“We’re kind of in a stall right now,” Summers said. “We do have new scoreboards and 30-second clocks coming in and we’re dong a sound system, but as far as a total renovation, right now, we’re in a holding pattern.”

Summers said the reallocation of ESSER funding isn’t the only reason those planned projects are on hold.

“Building costs have just exponentially climbed — you want to get bang for your buck and not overpay,” Summers said. “We will be addressing the air conditioning needs at Grim Gym and we’ll be looking at air conditioning the Rock Gym that we still use for practice and P.E. for the little kids.

“We’re doing small things, but as far as a total renovation, we’re probably not going to be able to at this time.”

In other business, the board approved the district’s annual budget. This year’s budget showed a beginning balance of $4,186,533.63, projected revenues of $22.7 million, projected expenditures of $19,480,603.01 and a projected ending balance of $3,289,117.89.

“As our enrollment increases, obviously our budget does as well,” Summers said. “That’s the largest budget in the history of our school, but our enrollment is also the largest that it’s ever been.”

Summers added that, as of Sept. 19, K-12 enrollment in the district was 1,437 students, including an increase of 26 students since the first day of school. In September 2021, the district’s enrollment stood at 1,372.

“You can obviously see that when I say growth is coming, the numbers back it up,” Summers said.

Students will have to adapt to a change in the district’s dress code after the board voted to make changes to the sections that mention skirts, dresses and shorts.

“That’s items 11 and 12 in our dress code,” Summers said. “Item 11 talks about skirts, dresses and shorts and we’ve always said midthigh. Item 12 deals with leggings and says that, if a student wears leggings, they must wear a shirt or sweater or something that covers shorts length. They both say mid-thigh.

We had some concerns about that because it’s subjective and not measurable.”

The changes reflect a more measurable requirement, with shorts, skirts, dresses and coverings for those wearing leggings not to be shorter than fingertip length.

Summers said the new rule still isn’t as fair as he’d like.

“Some kids have long arms and their shorts could look like jeans,” he said. “Then you’ve got kids that look like a T-Rex and got short arms. The key piece to that is we wanted to take the subjectivity out of it and we want it to be measurable. We did a lot of research on dress codes and there’s just really not a good one out there.

This is just our best possible scenario.”

The board also approved a new after-school tutoring program for students in kindergarten through fifth grade. Summers said the program kicked off Sept. 26.

“That’s Monday and Tuesday each week, from 3:30 p.m. to 5 p.m.,” Summers said. “And we do provide transportation. We’ll have one bus that runs.”

Compensation for the teachers and bus driver who take part in the new program, Summers said, will come from the district’s Title I funding.

In personnel matters, the board approved the transfer of Rex Hunter to the transportation department as an assistant mechanic from the maintenance/custodial department and added Janet Jones as an after-school tutor for middle school students. The board also voted to hire Craig Matzenbacher as a bus driver, Todd Richard as a custodian for the maintenance department and Stephen Crewse as the district’s technology director.

The board’s next meeting is scheduled for 5 p.m., Monday, Oct. 17, at the high school media center.