GF board focuses on safety

The Green Forest School District has laid out plans for various projects aimed at improving cost efficiency and safety.

At the Green Forest School Board’s June meeting, plans were approved for two measures aimed at improving campus security while another is aimed at lowering heat and air conditioning bills.

Starting this year with the elementary and intermediate campuses, buildings will be remodeled with single-point entries, Superintendent Matt Summers said.

“We are looking at our safety and security audit and continually working to make our campus as safe and secure as we possibly can,” he said. “We went to a card system last year where all of our doors remain locked at all times and when you use a card the door opens and then it automatically locks back. So, there’s no open doors.

“We’re looking at a single-point of entry for all of our campuses, and we’re looking at a double-door situation.”

For example, you would enter a campus building and be in a “holding area,” and wait to be buzzed into the building, Summers said.

“We’re looking at more of a bank-teller type entryway for our secretaries,” he said. “We’d have the little slide panel and the glass with the sound hole. That way, if someone is just coming in to drop off a doctor’s note or a bus pass or a parent note, they can exit that way and not necessarily have access to the entire building.”

Summers said because of the cost, the elementary and intermediate campuses will see the changes first with the middle school and high school to get the remodels in future years.

Another safety measure approved was using $34,875.87 of money the district received from the Arkansas School Safety Grant to purchase a panic button system for all campuses.

“The building secretary can hit that button and it automatically secures all doors and has a strobe light,” Summers said. “There will be a flashing red light and then a verbal lock down.”

A delay in getting a lockdown initiated was a key in the change, the superintendent said.

“We found doing our lockdown drills and our safety and security drill that there’s always a time factor,” Summers said. “Using a radio or a phone… “Time is the key. You’re always trying to buy time and this is something that will buy us precious seconds in the event we have an issue. … of course, the biggest one is going to be an active shooter or someone that’s determined to cause harm.”

Using a grant from Entergy aimed at energy cost saving, the board also approved installing wifi-enabled thermostats in district facilities.

“Classrooms, gymnasiums, basically everywhere we have heating and air,” Summers said. “Those will be controllable and they’ll have parameters that we will set as a district. What we’re trying to do is save on energy costs.”

Summers said since most classrooms are only occupied by staff or students eight or nine hours in a 24-hour day, it’s important that air conditioning or heat is not running excessively when spaces are empty.

“We will set guidelines on when the heat or air would be on and when the non-use times would be,” he said.

Most breakfast and lunch prices for students and adults will see an increase for the upcoming school year because of inflation and USDA standards, Summers said.

Students in pre-K through fifth grade will see breakfast increased from $1.35 to $1.45 and lunch increased from $1.95 to $2.05. Students in sixth grade through high school will now pay $1.70 for breakfast, up from $1.60, and $2.20 for lunch, up from $2.10.

Adult breakfast prices will remain at $2.35 while adult lunches will now be $4.75, up from $3.75.

The board also approved the purchase of 35 laptops for elementary and intermediate teachers at a cost of $31,000 and two servers at a cost of $12,726.34.

“The servers will replace existing aging and overloaded units,” Summers said. “The newest one was five years old and the oldest one is 15 years old.”

The board also approved renewing a district- required student insurance policy for $9,395, the same as the cost for last school year.

Also approved, as part of a grant, was an agreement to utilize officers from Green Forest Police Department as campus resource officers. The school district will pay 50 percent of the officers’ salary.

PERSONNEL CHANGES

The board approved resignations of Joshua Blaine, a high school social studies teacher and Quiz Bowl coach and Christianna Camp, the district’s head volleyball coach, head softball coach and PE/health teacher. Also, resigning was Ashley Wilson, the head girls soccer coach.

Approved transfers were Misti Crewse to fifth grade from fourth grade and Kaileigh Walker to intermediate paraprofessional from migrant paraprofessional.

Hires that were approved by the board were Rodrigo Lopez as high school social studies teacher, Zachary Trent as a middle school and high school special education teacher, Clarissa Wood as a fourth-grade teacher, Destinie Meadors as a personal care paraprofessional, Morgan Ray as a personal care paraprofessional, Carrie Reece as a intermediate and middle school library instructional assistant and Nikkoli Williams as a custodian.

The board held a special called meeting on Tuesday, June 27, approving the hiring of 2016 Green Forest graduate Carley Smith as the district’s new head volleyball coach. She will also teach PE, according to the district’s Facebook page.