Green Forest graduate chosen as architect for new building

The Green Forest School District is going with one of its own for the first step in its new building plans.

At its final meeting of the year held Wednesday, Dec. 17, Josh Siebert with Fayetteville-based Modus Studio was unanimously approved as the architect for the project, which will house students in grades 7-12.

“We signed a contract with Modus Studios,” Green Forest Superintendent David Gilmore said. “They’ve done quite a bit of business here in Green Forest. They designed our middle school before and they did the city hall here in town.

“The architect is an alumni of the district and very proud to to take on the job, and has been wanting to do this project for quite some time. We’re really lucky to have him as an ally and a partner with us and let him do our work on the new proposed 7-12 building.”

Siebert joined the Dec. 17 meeting via Zoom to answer any questions from the board. With Modus now approved, Gilmore said the firm will develop and submit a couple of different designs for the building.

“We’re going to do some core drilling,” Gilmore said. “We’ve got two main sites here on campus that we’re looking at. One by where the old red brick building is by the old bus shop, and then we own a two-acre piece of land right behind the current high school between 9th and 10th Street.

“So, they’re going to do some core drilling over Christmas break. I have met with the architect and also met with some potential contractors, and we walked the sites. We’re just trying to kind of figure out pros and cons for each site and what’s going to be the most cost-effective to build and stay on budget for the district.”

The new building became a reality after Green Forest residents overwhelmingly voted to approve a 6-mill tax increase to help finance the construction.

In a special election on Nov. 18, 337 voters (66.6 percent) voted in favor of the tax increase, with 169 votes (33.4 percent) against the proposal.

The money raised through the additional taxes, along with $9.990 million awarded from the state of Arkansas, will help fund the proposed $25 million, 72,000 square foot, multi-story facility, which also will include a performing arts building. The plan calls for seventh- and eighth-grade students to be housed in one part of the building with grades 9-12 in another area.

“They’re going to get really serious in January for the new year and get started,” Gilmore said of Modus. “They propose about a 10-month window, which would push us into late of 2026. And then talking with the contractors, at that time, it would be a good time to do some bids and estimates and things like that, and just see what costs are. Then probably, starting early January 2027, actual building the project itself.”

The board also approved purchasing three “school-use” vehicles for transportation needs that don’t require a school bus, and also for staff to use for various training and meetings, Gilmore said.

“It’s pretty common for schools to have a couple of vehicles,” the superintendent said. “For example, a lot of schools have an SUV or a van or something like that for small groups of kids, if you’re running kids to the co-op and everything, and just have three or four kids. You don’t need a full school bus for that.

“… Or if teachers are going to training, or the superintendent or bookkeepers whoever is going to trainings, we like to use a school vehicle because vehicles are expensive anymore and we don’t want people having to use their own. When we do the math on it, at the school level not paying mileage checks actually pays back the purchase of that vehicle anyway so it actually can save the district money.”

The board approved purchasing a 2026 Chrysler Pacifica for $38,950 from Ramsey Motor in Harrison, a 2025 Nissan Altima for $25,000 from Wood Motor Co., in Harrison and a 2013 Chevrolet Silverado 2500 work truck for $13,900 from Wilson Automotive in Harrison.

“This year we decided that our bus fleet was in pretty good shape, so we decided to take the money we would normally buy a bus with each year and postpone that and buy a few school-use vehicles instead,” Gilmore said.

The board also voted 7-0 to approve adding a $675 stipend for a website design coordinator, and OK’d the 20262027 school calendar.

The first day of classes next school year will be Tuesday, Aug. 11, and the last day of classes is scheduled for Wednesday, May 19, 2027.

In addition, Gilmore told the board that the district’s Value-Added Model, often reported as Value-Added Growth Schools results, have been received. The district earned an average score of 81.09, exceeding the state standard of 80, the superintendent reported.

Green Forest posted two of the highest scores within its educational cooperative with scores of 96 and 90.

In personnel approvals, the board OK’d adding Cody Sanders as an assistant boys soccer coach and the hires of Patricia Pedraza as full-time special education personal care paraprofessional and Tyler Kelley and Cassie Mallonne as full-time custodians. Also approved was the resignation of custodian Dana Veach.