Green Forest board members choose 4-year terms at Sept. 16 meeting

Members of the Green Forest School Board have opted for four-year terms.

At its regular monthly meeting held Tuesday, Sept. 16, the board voted 5-2 to approve four-year board terms instead of six-year terms, both options for districts across the state after the recent passage of Act 503.

Board members Nicki Hill and Katrina Newberry voted against the four-year proposal.

“There were some really good points put out there,” Green Forest Superintendent David Gilmore said of the board discussion. “Some said we were paying for board members to be trained, and they’re going to need less training as the years go on, so it might be cost-effective to do the six years, and you’ll be a better board member as you go on.

“But then the other, they understand that is quite the commitment, and a lot of political positions, including president, only do four years.”

The board also approved a new protocol for the high school band to play the school’s alma mater during away games.

In a 6-1 vote, with Newberry voting no, the board OK’d a new policy that allows the band to play the alma mater at road games if Green Forest wins, Gilmore said.

“It was just one of those things that I wanted some clarity on as a superintendent,” Gilmore said. “Last year, a few school board members had maybe thought that playing our alma mater at another school might be kind of … they felt like it might not be as tactful and respectful and show good sportsmanship,” he said. “So, I just wanted some clarity on that because there was some confusion about whether to play it or not … “So, the board did say that if we win the game, as long as we’re respectful about it, and line up in front of the the visitor bleachers where our fans would be at and play it toward us. … They were fine with playing the alma mater and having some school spirit about a win.”

The board approved the 2025-2026 after-school tutoring program for all grade levels. The program is from 4:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. Tuesday through Thursday and will be led by teachers who the board approved to pay $35 an hour.

In addition, the board unanimously approved an after- school detention program, in addition to a new Saturday School program for grades 9 through 12.

“We’ve always had after- school detention,” Gilmore said. “A new thing this year, though, is we did add Saturday School as an option. That’s something I did back when I was in Eureka and it worked really well. It was a situation, kind of like, instead of putting a kid in in-school suspension, and them missing some class time, we’d bring them in on a Saturday for several hours and make them either do their homework or do work around the building, things like that, whatever we needed to do, so that they would hopefully learn a lesson from those disciplinary infractions. We think that works really well.”

The board also OK’d Oak Grove Town Parks and Community Center as a Community Service Learning Partner, allowing students service learning opportunities.

Other approvals were a new Memorandum of Understanding with the county’s Connect 4 program, a new Spanish Club at the high school, a purchase service agreement with Spot on Pediatric Therapy LLC, and some maintenance projects at the football stadium to help with ADA compliance issues.

The board will hold a special meeting at 5:30 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 24, Gilmore said, with the primary focus to be approving the 2025-2026 budget.

“We’re also going to have some more discussion on the millage campaign that we’re currently in,” the superintendent said.