Gilmore continues to make case for millage increase

Green Forest Superintendent David Gilmore continues to make the rounds, spreading the word about the need to pass a millage increase in an upcoming special election.

The election for a proposed 6-mill increase to fund a new seventh- through 12-grade building will be held Tuesday, Nov. 18, with early voting to be held Nov. 12-14 and Nov. 17.

It’s been 17 years since Green Forest residents have been asked to pass a millage increase. In that time, the district has managed to complete 14 facility upgrades to repair aging buildings dating as old as the 1920s and 1960s.

Gilmore has said, however, that the time has come when repairs are no longer sufficient — especially for a high school building that is 65 years old.

The money earned through additional taxes, along with $9.990 million awarded from the state of Arkansas, will help fund a $25 million facility across the street from the current high school.

“This project is a need, not a want,” said Gilmore, who recently shared information on the proposal with Hispanic and Karen families. All information regarding the proposal, including both hard copy and online, is in both English and Spanish, the superintendent said.

“I went to the Karen Baptist Church and spoke with them and they were very supportive. They have a lot of students in the district,” Gilmore said he shared with members of the school board during the monthly meeting held Monday, Oct. 20. “They’re about 10 percent of our population.”

Gilmore has already done outreach with Green Forest’s Hispanic residents, including a recent social media interview with Odra DeLeon, a district teacher and member of city council.

“I’ve spoken to some of the Hispanic church leaders and did an interview with Odra DeLeon … who does a Hispanic Alliance Facebook page around here to translate things for the Hispanic community, and also keep them in the know of what’s happening,” Gilmore said.

“They interviewed me, and there were actually 221 viewers who watched that live. The last time I checked there was about 1,800 views on that and a lot of shares, a lot of thumbs up. So, the Hispanic community is very involved in this and really want to know, so we want to make sure we got that out there to them.”

The district will host one final open community forum on the millage increase at 5:30 p.m. Monday, Nov. 3, at the high school cafeteria.

“We really want people to come out to that and really get any facts or any questions or any misconceptions answered,” Gilmore said. “We’re really trying hard to get this millage and get some new facilities for our kids.”

Gilmore told the board that he has also been working with students in the Tigers TV program producing a video that shows the poor condition of some of the buildings that need to be replaced.

“It shows the facilities first-hand,” he said. “The students did some video and interviews and things like that just so people can see. Sometimes it’s easier to watch a quick video than it is to read all the information about it. We’ll try to put that out there however we can, and just be open and transparent about the process and why we need it and what it’s going to cost.”

OTHER BOARD ITEMS Gilmore gave the annual Report to the Public, where he praised the district’s growth in state testing.

“I’m just proud of some of the progress we’ve made over the last year,” the superintendent said. “Our testing data showed a lot of progress, especially making growth. We did really, really well.

“We were above state averages almost across the entire aspect of testing on showing growth with our students. Some of the data I had from the high school was like in the 98th percentile of the state on growth.”

Gilmore also praised the trainings that all teachers have had in ELL and said that 11 teachers will be getting master teacher designations, which provides for mentoring other teachers.

In personnel approvals, the board OK’d the resignations of cafeteria workers Rosa Webb and custodians Cody Abbey and Amanda Abbey.

The board approved Daria Melina to move from an intermediate CBI room teacher to a new special education paraprofessional role for the 2025-2026 school year, along with the hires of Karen Sale and Kelley Deatherage for special education paraprofessionals and Michael Clark for the custodial department.