GF board sticks with Nabholz for district’s construction needs

At its January monthly meeting, the Green Forest School Board voted to approve Nabholz construction management company for any district needs.

That includes upcoming projects as part of constructing a new building for students in grades 7-12 after voters overwhelmingly approved a millage increase to finance the project.

“We’ve been renewing a contract with Nabholz for several years now,” Gilmore said. “They’ve done several projects with us over the years … and we’re going to keep using their services with the new building project coming forward.”

Two pieces of land were surveyed over Christmas break to determine if either was more suitable as the location for the new building. One is across the street from the current high school and the other involves a piece of land the district owns behind the current high school.

“They have tested both sites,” Gilmore said. “One is kind of over where the old red brick building is at and another is the lot behind the current high school. From what I can tell, everything seems to be OK in both sites, but the board hasn’t made a decision on where to build the new building yet.

“That will be coming up in the coming months.”

The district’s architect, Josh Siebert, has also developed some preliminary design ideas after meeting with the administrator team and will soon be meeting with teachers to find out what they like and what they think should be in the new buildings.

Gilmore said he doesn’t expect any ground breaking to take place until approximately January 2027, he said.

Gilmore said posts on social media have included comments from residents hoping that some structures can remain on campus despite the construction of the new building, specifically the red brick building that has been there for decades, he said.

Unfortunately, since the district is using nearly $10 million awarded by the state for the project, Gilmore said requirements say buildings such as the red brick building must be removed.

“I know people get very sentimental with the buildings that we have here on campus and everything,” he said. “It’s been out there for a while that we would have to tear down some facilities here. … That’s how it works with the state. We received partnership money to build our new building project … but by doing so, the state says we have to tear down some of those older facilities that are not considered adequate. I know a lot of people were very concerned, for example, the old red brick building that we have here on campus.

“Well, they want to keep it, and I get it, they want to keep it and maybe turn it into a museum or something like that on campus, but the state says we have to tear it down. … We’d love to keep those old facilities, but we just can’t. … So, I just kind of wanted to clear up some things that maybe people in the community don’t know about that process, how that works with the partnership money, about having to tear down some of the older facilities.”

One facility that Gilmore assured will not be affected by the project is the old rock gym, which is used regularly.

“It’s just the red brick building that has become pretty dilapidated,” he said. “That’s what we’ll have to tear down because the state states we have to.”

Gilmore also said the board had good visits to tour school buildings in Berryville and Valley Springs, and still hope to visit Eureka Springs when the weather cooperates.

“We saw some things we liked and some things we didn’t like,” Gilmore said. “We’ve been talking about the size of our building compared to some of those others.”

The board approved the annual measure of extending the superintendent’s contract.

Gilmore, who was originally hired before the 2024-2025 school year on a three-year term, had his contract extended by a year.

“Every year they re-evaluate that,” Gilmore said of his contract. “They added a year, making it three years again.”

Gilmore’s current contract will now go through the 2028-2029 school year, the superintendent

“I’m happy the board was satisfied with my performance and added that additional year to my contract,” Gilmore said.

The board also approved purchasing new jerseys for the senior high football team at a cost of approximately $20,000, Gilmore said.

“Actually, we were looking at originally just doing one jersey to save money, but we ended up deciding we had the money to get them both,” he said. “So, we’re going to buy the red and the white new jerseys. Our pants were fine, so we’re keeping the pants and just going with the new jerseys.”

The jerseys used this past season will now be worn by the junior high team, Gilmore said.

“We’ve got all of our teams kind of set up on a rotation to evaluate,” he said. “We were actually supposed to buy new jerseys last year, but thought we could get one more year out of them. … We usually buy new ones every four years.”