2. Haas Hall doesn’t keep minutes from school board meetings that show a record of who is on the school board, which board members were present at each meeting, who was absent from each meeting, and what the vote on each agenda item was. That’s required by state law, too, since school board meetings are supposed to be the public’s opportunity to participate in school governance.*

Academy Foundation, Inc. IRS form 990, for 2016–17 school year, filed May 14, 2018

3. Haas Hall isn’t a sustainable public school. It’s a subsidized Potemkin village. Haas Hall has a huge slush fund in the form of a private foundation, so it doesn’t have to budget money to pay for “occupancy” expenses (its own buildings,) most of its advertising campaigns, or to reimburse its faculty/staff for their travel and lodging when they (frequently) represent the school at events that require hotel stays, restaurants, air fare, etc.

Haas Hall also doesn’t pay its own legal fees (although I imagine the Rose Law Firm must be expensive, especially when the school gets sued for not paying its rent, and damaging its landlord’s property.) Instead, The Academy Foundation (a private foundation operated solely by Superintendent Schoppmeyer, his mom, and his wife) pays for all of these things. It also pays expenses for “conferences, conventions and meetings…” Maybe the Northwest Arkansas School Choice Festival at the Jones Center?

4. Initially, the State Board of Education denied Haas Hall’s application to open new campuses in Springdale and Rogers. Haas Hall had been, demonstrably, circumventing the “open-enrollment” nature of its charter and enrolling students preferentially. (Yes, this is an open secret. No, that doesn’t make it okay.) Transcripts of the State Board of Education meeting on May 18, 2016 show board members raising questions regarding Haas Hall’s “improperly enrolled” students, and questions regarding the transparency and legitimacy of the “random drawing” enrollment lottery. For example, why would an application to take part in a random drawing ask potential students to describe their academic credentials?

Haas Hall 2017–18 Enrollment Lottery: Screenshot from Haas Hall’s Facebook Live Video. Heather Holoway is shown, in black, with the Haas Hall AP Computer Science students who designed the lottery.

5. Haas Hall’s attorney, Mark Henry (of the Rose Law Firm, which has historically represented Walmart, Tyson, the Clinton Presidential Foundation, and other big names) blamed those previous preferential enrollments on an employee (whom he didn’t name at the May 18 Board meeting) who had since separated from Haas Hall. Mr. Henry promised the Board that there was now “a time-stamped fully automated computer system” for managing the lottery more equitably in the future — developed by Haas Hall’s Executive Director of Marketing and Communications at the time, Heather Holaway. (Here she is, on the 2017–18 Haas Hall “Facebook Live” lottery drawing video, explaining the computer lottery system.)

6. Two Haas Hall students helped write the new lottery program. Dr. Martin Schoppmeyer, Jr. paid these teenagers for their work with envelopes of cash that he delivered, personally, to their AP Computer Science classroom.

Dr. Jay Barth, asking for documentation that would help the State Board of Education “get to the bottom of the lottery thing” on June 9, 2016. From https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j5WjBOKwrCw&feature=youtu.be

7. At the State Board of Education meeting on June 9, 2016 (start watching around 5 hours and 10 minutes) board member Dr. Jay Barth again addressed the “rumbling about this lottery issue,” and asked that Haas Hall and the Arkansas Department of Education provide any communication between the school and the ADE regarding the lottery process. Dr. Barth also requested any communication from “folks who have had tangible concerns about the lottery” to be presented to the State Board of Education, so they could “get to the bottom of the lottery thing.” Board member Mireya Reith then mentioned she had also heard “rumblings around graduation requirements” and asked for a comparison of students entering Haas Hall versus students graduating from Haas Hall.

Haas Hall attorney Mark Henry testifying at July 14, 2016 Arkansas State Board of Education meeting that Haas Hall had adequately provided responses to the requests made by Dr. Barth and Ms. Reith. Screenshot from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ginT0jZbrts

As far as I can tell, the State Board of Education never reviewed Haas Hall’s responses (or documents provided by the ADE) at a public meeting. However, Haas Hall’s attorney, Mark Henry, testified at the July 14, 2016 State Board of Education meeting that Haas Hall did provide these documents. I guess I’ll have to FOIA the State Board of Education if I want to see a copy!

(Update 1/19/2019: Since I published this post, I have received a copy of these documents, plus many others. Unfortunately, the ADE did not disclose all the complaints they received. Please go here to read more!)

8. When Haas Hall applied, again, to expand into Springdale and Rogers, the matter went before the State Board of Education on July 14, 2016. State Board of Education member Dr. Jay Barth expressed continuing concern about the fact that Haas Hall serves ZERO students who qualify for special education (a statistical improbability, since 12% of Arkansas students are special ed students.)

In terms of the numbers, especially at the Fayetteville/Springdale campus . . . you know, the 0% special ed., the 0% LEP, the 0% free-and-reduced lunch, I guess I’ll just be blunt: it feels — anywhere in Arkansas, even in a fairly affluent part of Arkansas — it feels pretty hard for that to be accomplished. -Dr. Jay Barth

Dr. Barth also expressed his opinion that Haas Hall’s digitized enrollment lottery (developed by Ms. Holaway and the two students) was doing better — but not well enough — at encouraging diversity. Despite these concerns, Haas Hall’s expansion application was approved.

9. Haas Hall Academy opened its two new campuses in 2017. In 2018, right before the enrollment lottery drawings for the current school year, someone in Haas Hall Admissions emailed Executive Director of Marketing and Communications Heather Holaway insisting that she give them login access to edit the enrollment lottery. (For the full document, as I received it, go here.)

10. Heather Holaway objected, and pointed out, “This program is hosted in a high-level coding environment and needs to be altered only by people who have the expertise to do so properly. I don’t think I’m advanced enough to make changes and don’t have access to edit it (which is really for the best, I’d say!)”

11. The Haas Hall response (sender redacted) was merely, “I paid for the services. All access, information related therein are my property. I expect to have access today.”

12. Heather Holaway referred back to the Arkansas Board of Education meeting where Haas Hall had promised to prevent access to its lottery system by any Haas Hall employee, as a condition of its expansion application being approved. Nevertheless, her concerns got overridden. The Haas Hall representative (AP Computer Science teacher John Daily, as I have learned from the former student who wrote the code) DID get access to the lottery code, and assured Ms. Holaway he had been able to make the necessary changes to the enrollment lottery prior to the drawing on February 26, 2018.