GF board OKs purchase of playground equipment with mobility assistance

Green Forest students with mobility issues will soon be able to enjoy the school playground with their classmates.

At its monthly meeting held Tuesday, March 17, the Green Forest School Board approved supporting the purchase of new playground equipment for elementary and intermediate school students. The new equipment has features that will assist students with mobility issues.

“This is something we’ve been working on for a while now,” Green Forest Superintendent David Gilmore said. “Several members of our board and staff members, and people in our community and administration really had a passion to make sure that all of our kids would be able to play on our playground equipment and have access to it. Kids with mobility issues and wheelchairs, things like that, can struggle to be able to use some of the equipment, so the thought of providing some inclusive playground equipment was brought up.”

Such a purchase can be very costly, Gilmore said, but the district will be using grants and a partnership with the city to help.

“The City of Green Forest was able to give us some cash and some in-kind donations,” the superintendent said. “The state gave us some more money, and we got a matching grant for a total of $30,000 to put toward that.”

Another $15,000 from companies looking to build in the area, along with gifts from the Kiwanis Club and Earl Collins Foundation assisted, Gilmore said.

“The good thing about this is we’re going to be able to put in a very large climber, and a type of merry-go-round that is considered inclusive playground equipment for all of our students,” Gilmore said. 

“We’re not having to pull that money out of our local operating funds or our building fund, so that’s pretty cool.”

The equipment will come from a company in Monett, Mo., Gilmore said, and plans are for it to be installed by the end of the current school year or by the beginning of the 2026-2027 school year.

OTHER ITEMS

The board also approved new officers after the recent election, Gilmore said.

New approvals were the election of Jeff Boggs as the new board president and Katrina Newberry as the new vice president. Rodney Hayhurst was also OK’d to be the board’s legislative liaison and Kenny Bonham as Green Forest’s Connect Four representative.

The board also approved the purchase of new football equipment from Riddell at a cost that exceeds the $10,000 that’s under Gilmore’s sole approval.

“If you have a football team, it’s a requirement to get your helmets inspected,” the superintendent said. “Some of those have to be refurbished, and some of them have to be replaced, so that’s a pretty expensive thing.”

The board also approved allocating money that is set aside to help support homeless families in the district, Gilmore said.

“We currently have about 147 students in our district who would be considered homeless,” he said. “We have set aside money for that, but it is a requirement to set it aside. We’ve done it for several years now, and we work with Harps grocery store and they give us a good deal on things.

“The money is used to buy vouchers for those families so they can get food and things that they need. We’re able to give families in our community a voucher using that.”

Special funding, including a grant, helped the district with those costs.

Also approved was a proposal from the Bailey Education Group to continue tutoring services, and a middle school summer reading program.

The purchase of a new school bus, at a cost of approximately $146,000 was also OK’d.