School board hears from architect

Ideas of what a possible new campus building might look like took up the majority of the Green Forest School Board’s monthly meeting on Tuesday, Dec. 12.

Josh Siebert, a Green Forest native and an architect with Modus Studio in Fayetteville, had a discussion with the board about what a new school building would contain as he begins to design renderings.

“He is doing some very beginning-level drawings for the district,” superintendent Matt Summers said.

The board recently voted to put in an application for state funding for a new facility that would house students in grades seven through 12. The possible new building would be on the block just south of the current high school campus, Summers said.

“We decided to go ahead and apply for the state funding and the deadline for that is Feb. 1,” he said. “So, has started the preliminary conversations with the board about what we are looking for.”

Siebert has worked with the district on other projects and recently was the architect on record for the Green Forest city offices.

The familiarity helps, Summers said, since construction standards have changed in recent years.

“For any new construction now you have to have a safe room, or something similar that would stand up against a tornado or a massive storm,” the superintendent said. “We’ve talked through some square footage of classrooms, that sort of thing, getting the vision from the board.”

Those visions will lead to drawings that should be presented to the board in January, Summers said.

“Drawings are required for submittal to apply for the state funding,” he said. “Again, we are very early on at this stage. Those drawings could change. But, the amount of square footage and things that are required in that building would not change.

“It’s not every outlet, every light fixture that’s required. Just an overall architectural design.”

After the district submits the application for state funding by Feb. 1, it will learn by fall 2024 if funding is granted, Summers said.

“We would then learn how much we are getting in May 2025,” he said. “So, you’re talking at least 18 months out. Then we would see where interest rates are. There’s a lot of moving parts.”

The end goal would be a new building that would help with space needs across the entire district “We are looking at a seven though 12 building today,” Summers said. “That could change but that is what we are looking at today. The reason is that one complex would alleviate all of our growth needs, district-wide, and help us meet our needs for classroom space 10, 15, 20 years down the road with that one new building.

“We are a little concerned about having seventh- and eighth-graders that close to high schoolers, so the design will have a wing or something where seventh- and eighth-graders aren’t mingling with seniors. Back in the day, that was the model for many Arkansas schools, but today, the world has changed. That’s a pretty big age gap.”

PERSONNEL APPROVALS

Personnel action approved by the board included accepting the resignations of high school math teacher Tammy Brown and custodian Michaella Fox.

Jim Goins was approved to come out of retirement to replace Brown and Wesley Sooter was approved for a newly created position in the district’s maintenance department.

“With the recent purchase by the district of the baseball and softball complex from the city we knew we would have to do some things to maintain it, keep it to the standards we want,” Summers said. “So, we knew we would need another maintenance person, mostly a yard-type person to mow, weed-eat, edging, all of those things. So, the board approved creating that position with a a job description of taking care of those four fields at the City Park, plus our football game field and football practice field.

“ has been working with us for quite some time … he’s a good, hard worker and really takes great pride in his work and that’s what you want to see. When people come out to see your athletic fields, athletic complex, they want to look out there and see that the grass is manicured and everything is looking in shipshape.”