GF adds wrestling program, hires new football coach

Students in the Green Forest School District will have another athletic opportunity for the next school year.

At its regular monthly meeting held Tuesday, March 18, the Green Forest School Board voted to add high school wrestling, a sport becoming more popular around the state.

“It’s exciting that we’re adding wrestling,” superintendent David Gilmore said. “It was brought up by some parents, some staff members, even some coaches, who felt like it would be good to add, especially for the sport of football.

“Wrestling helps kids be more aggressive and more physical, learn how to tackle and do different moves that they could use out on the football field. So, we feel like those two will complement each other very well. But, it’s also just a great sport in general, and we want to add opportunities for our kids to have different ways to participate.”

There’s an interest in the community for wrestling to become a staple for younger kids, too, Gilmore said.

“We’re going to add it for the high school level, but I’ve heard talk of people in town that want to bring it down to the pee-wee level, too, and have a youth program,” the superintendent said. “So, there’s possibly some parents that are wanting to help with that … We’ve heard there are some at the pee-wee level whose parents are taking them to Harrison or Berryville or other areas that have a wrestling program currently, so we wanted that option for our students here.”

EWING HIRED TO REPLACE TIBBITT

The board also approved the hiring of Dalton Ewing as the Green Forest’s new head football coach, replacing coach Greg Tibbitt.

“Coach Tibbitt did a really good job for us, but he had some other opportunities in another state and is going to be moving out of the district,” Gilmore said. “We hate to lose him, but we did hire Dalton Ewing to be our new head football coach.”

Ewing, a Green Forest graduate, is currently on the football staff

“He’s coached at several different places, played college ball and is a Green Forest alumni,” Gilmore said. “He’s very passionate about the sport and we were very impressed with Dalton and glad he’s coming home.”

On his Facebook page, Ewing posted on Wednesday, March 19: “Excited to announce that I have been blessed with the opportunity to return back to Green Forest as the Head Football Coach. #GoTigers #RTB” Being familiar with the community is important, Gilmore said.

“It’s always good to have a familiar face,” he said. “… That knowledge of the community is crucial.”

The hiring of Ewing means the only head coaching position remaining open in the district is the head girls basketball coach, a job that Gilmore said he expects to fill soon.

“We’re still interviewing for that,” the superintendent said. “… We want to make sure we’re getting the best applicants on that and make sure we’re thoroughly researching records and work ethics

MAKEUP DAYS SET

Students were in class on a rare Monday on March 17, the first of a series of makeup days scheduled because of days missed because of winter weather.

“We’ve had six snow days so we’ve adjusted our calendar to get those made up,” Gilmore said.

Students will be in class on an additional Monday, April 7, to make up another day and then will attend May 20-23 to wrap up the missed days and school year.

“The staff voted to go ahead and do a couple of the days now, go on a couple of Mondays,” Gilmore said. “Then we’ll do the four [in May] and still get out the Friday before Memorial Day.”

Having class on a Monday was a bit different, Gilmore admitted.

“This four-day thing is still kind of fairly new to us, and I knew it would be hard on the teachers and hard on the kids since we do a long day,” he said. “So, we chose not to just make all up on a Monday, after Monday, after Monday. We chose to spread it out a little bit.

“We picked week because it was the week before spring break. So, let’s go five days and then you got a week to rest.”

OTHER BOARD ITEMS

The board voted to increase stipends for staff who lead extracurricular activities such as sports and band, Gilmore said.

“We updated our stipends for the staff who do different jobs that go outside the regular day,” he said. “That applies to coaches, band teachers, lots of different people across the district such as class sponsors, things like that. It had been five years since they’ve been updated, which is not an extremely long amount of time. It’s about right to look at it and change it a little bit.

“So, we made a few minor tweaks here and there to kind of get our salaries more comparable to other schools. You always try to keep up on that the best you can so you’re taking care of your staff and doing what you need to do for them to keep them happy and keep them in the district.”

The board also OK’d the purchase of Chromebooks and cabinets to store the computers, as well as approving updated library policies, its preschool annual agreement and crisis prevention training.

Athletic supplies — particularly replacement equipment for football — were also approved by the board, Gilmore said.

“Our numbers have been really strong, and every year we have to go through our football helmets,” he said. “Within a certain amount of time they have to be basically rebuilt and inspected. So, that was done, and we bought some additional helmets and things like that to help with the increasing numbers on our teams.”

The board OK’d the addition of a administrative support position for the district’s technology staff and approved a clean audit from the 2024-2025 school year under former superintendent Matt Summers, Gilmore said.

“We get audited every year … and this was based on last year’s audit,” he said. “This is something from our past bookkeeper and Dr. Summers and they had no audit findings. It was pretty much that way the entire time they were here so they did a really good job with that. I hope I can continue in the same manner with no audit fundings.”