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The Mountain Home Area Chamber of Commerce will hold its State of Education Breakfast on Friday, Sept. 18, bringing leaders from the area’s college, public school district and private academy together to talk about what education here is facing.
The event runs from 7:30 to 9 a.m. in the Trout Room at the Vada Sheid Community Development Center on the Arkansas State University-Mountain Home campus, 1600 S. College St. Breakfast is served at 7:30 a.m. and the presentation begins at 8 a.m.
Speakers are ASU-Mountain Home Chancellor Bentley Wallace, Mountain Home Public Schools Superintendent Allyson Dewey and Mountain Home Christian Academy Administrator Doyne Byrd.
The breakfast is free and open to the public, and registration is required. Sign up at https://bit.ly/StateofEd2026 or through the QR code on the Chamber’s promotional materials. NEXT Powered by NAEC is sponsoring the event.
This is the second year for the education breakfast, which is part of the Chamber’s forum series alongside its State of Healthcare, State of Real Estate and Tourism, and State of City and County events.
At the first one, held last August, Dewey reported that the high school campus had grown more than 15 percentage points across several measures and that district ACT scores averaged 20.3, nearly two points above the state average. She said the district’s students topped state averages in all but six of 21 tested areas, and she asked local residents to consider funding scholarships of any size.
Byrd used last year’s breakfast to announce that Mountain Home Christian Academy had earned full accreditation through Cognia after a two-year process. He also addressed a tuition increase of $4,470, which took the school’s cost from $3,780 to more than $8,000, and said accreditation opened Educational Freedom Accounts under the LEARNS Act to the school’s families.
The district comes to this year’s breakfast with something to show off. Baxter County earned its ACT Work Ready Community designation in June after a two-year push by the Chamber, ASU-Mountain Home and Mountain Home Public Schools. Chamber President and CEO Dani Pugsley and district testing coordinator Becca Camp accepted the award at ACT’s national summit in Nashville in July.
Mountain Home students did much of the lifting. The share of tested juniors earning a National Career Readiness Certificate rose from 75% in 2023-24 to 92% last school year, with 24 students earning the top platinum rating. The district plans to have every junior take the assessment this year.
For more information, contact the Mountain Home Area Chamber of Commerce at 870-425-5111.
