State rejects diversity report

Board wants more from Haas Hall

The state Board of Education unanimously rejected a diversity report presented Thursday by Haas Hall Academy and asked the school to return in April with more information.

Haas Hall administrators representing the four campuses in Northwest Arkansas appeared at the board’s meeting in Little Rock to present their annual update on student enrollment demographics and explain what they’re doing to increase diversity.

The report shows the breakdown of students by race at the campuses in Fayetteville, Springdale, Rogers and Bentonville. Their report also included how many students are English language learners and how many qualify for the free and reduced-price meal program, and how those numbers compare to those of the school districts in which they’re located.

Data show Haas Hall’s students demographics generally don’t align with their communities at large. That’s especially true at the school’s Rogers and Springdale campuses, where the percentages of those who

are poor, who are English language learners and who are not white are lower than in the surrounding traditional public schools.

Haas Hall, which opened in 2004, has been recognized as the best high school in the state by U.S. News & World Report each of the past seven years.

Fitzgerald Hill, a board member, expressed disappointment the report contained nothing about the diversity of its faculty. A diverse staff is likely to help draw students of different ethnicities, he said.

“You have to be intentional,” Hill said. “I applaud everything you have, but there’s only a certain group of people that are getting exposed to these awesome educational opportunities you have.”

Hill suggested Haas Hall needs a person whose sole job is recruiting students from diverse backgrounds to apply to the school. He said he’d like to see the school set short-term and long-term goals to achieve greater diversity.

“Right now you’re fumbling in this area, and I think you need some help,” he said.

Jay Barth, the board’s chairman, said he was under the impression Haas Hall had made a commitment a few years ago to hire a community outreach coordinator.

Mark Henry, a lawyer representing Haas Hall, said there was a woman who served in such a role, but she is no longer with the school. Henry didn’t know how long she was at the school.

The effort to expand diversity can’t just be a one-time, temporary thing, Barth said.

“You can’t have someone in a position just long enough to get an amendment to expand your charter,” Barth said.

Kelly Barnett, Haas Hall’s director of admissions, said the school has spent more than $29,000 in the last couple of years on newspaper

and television advertising. Newspaper ads have run in both English and Spanish publications, she said.

Asked what the school is doing differently from the past, Barnett said the school is getting out into the community more, attending festivals where potential students are signed up on the spot.

The Arkansas Department of Education sent Haas Hall Superintendent Martin Schoppmeyer a letter last month about the partnership and diversity report, saying the report should include, but not be limited to, information on leadership team diversity demographics, poverty, free and reduced-price lunch student recruitment, special education and English language learner demographics. Board members agreed the report did not include all of that information.

Susan Chambers, a board member from Bella Vista, complimented the school as an academic institution but added, “I don’t think this report is representative of the quality of Haas Hall. It’s missing information.”

Chambers made the motion to not accept the report, which the rest of the board endorsed. Barth gave fellow board members until Monday to submit requests for any additional information they’d like to see included in Haas Hall’s next report, to be provided at the board’s April 11 meeting.

Also at Thursday’s board meeting, a few Northwest Arkansas residents — including a former Haas Hall employee — showed up to criticize ways in which the school operates.

Heather Holaway, Haas Hall’s marketing director until last year, admitted she’s a “disgruntled” ex-employee, though she didn’t get into her reasons for that. The school’s latest diversity report has holes, and it will be difficult to get the school to provide the data board members want, she said.

Mark Holaway, Heather’s husband, said they are parents of a Haas Hall graduate and a current senior at the school. He urged the state to pay more attention to the school.

Elizabeth Lyon-Ballay, who recently has been critical of Haas Hall in a series of blog posts, also spoke at the meeting. She raised concerns about how the school conducts its admission lotteries. She also asked the state to exercise greater oversight.

Henry said concerns about the school’s lottery are unfounded. State officials are present at the time of each lottey, and the school is “fully transparent” about it, he said.

As for the board’s request for additional information on the diversity of its staff, the school is more than happy to provide the state any information it requests, he said.

Schoppmeyer did not attend the board meeting. Henry told the board Schoppmeyer had something else to tend to in Fayetteville on Thursday.

“We also want to present you the entire new face of Haas Hall, to certainly respond to a broader criticism that this is some Schoppmeyer dynasty thing,” Henry said. “This is not that. We are here with the headmasters who are accountable for each of their students.”