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After a year of relative silence on the issue, Baxter County Prosecuting Attorney David Ethredge has finally weighed in on the secret text group created by former Mountain Home Public School Superintendent Dr. Jake Long to circumvent the Arkansas Freedom of Information Act with members of the school board by issuing an official warning letter to the district.
The text group, revealed by the Mountain Home Observer’s reporting in April of last year, was in operation for over eight years, allowing Long and school board members to make potential decisions in secret regarding the district’s policies, spending of tax dollars, and special elections.
In his warning letter, Ethredge says that under the present law, he cannot prosecute Long, who now serves as a superintendent for the Howell Valley School District in Missouri, because he was an employee of the district and not an elected official. The Arkansas Freedom of Information Act’s criminal provisions are only applicable to elected officials.
Those remaining school board members who still serve on the board and participated in the text group will not be prosecuted. Ethredge called for the board to hold a training session on following FOIA law in his warning letter to the district.
The district held FOIA training with their attorney in May of last year. The training was open to the public.
In 2023-2024, the Baxter County Sheriff’s Office initiated an investigation of former Mountain Home School District Superintendent Jake Long based upon information regarding potential violation(s) of the provisions of the Arkansas Freedom of Information Law.
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The Baxter County Sheriff’s Office has completed this investigation and sent the investigative file to my office for review. From the investigation, it is clear that Superintendent Jake Long engaged in a course of conduct that was designed to circumvent and frustrate the explicit intent of the ARFOIA. Superintendent Long created the non-public text communication to avoid open public meetings on matters that were of great public interest. While initiated by Long, the actions also involved the then existing school board.
The present law does not allow for prosecution of Long’s actions. The criminal provisions of the ARFOIA only apply to elected officials. Since District Superintendents are employees hired by the district, Long’s actions are not in violation of any criminal provision of the ARFOIA. It is unfortunate that there is not a course of action to penalize this individual as his actions directly caused an impairment in the relationship of the school and the school board.
This letter shall serve as an Official Warning that all meetings of the Mountain Home School Board should be fully open to the public. All meetings should occur after proper notice and not involve any electronic communication between individual school board members. Failure to comply with the provisions of the ARFOIA will result in further action for subsequent violations. It is abundantly clear that there is a need to promote and restore public confidence in the Mountain Home Public School Board and its critical mission for the community. It would be appropriate to provide a training session through the Mountain Home School District Attorney’s Office for the present school board and relevant school personnel on all ARFOIA Law.
Baxter County Prosecuting Attorney David Ethredge
In response to the warning letter, Mountain Home Public School Superintendent Allyson Dewey, who replaced Long after his surprise resignation in Feb. last year, issued a statement to assure the community that she and the district were taking the FOIA violations seriously.
In education we encourage our students to learn, grow and do their best to rectify mistakes when they’re made. This is also the case when it comes to our school board and the way it conducts business. Shortly after the news articles about potential FOIA violations came out, our Board attended a FOIA law training session to provide additional clarity. We’ve also begun livestreaming our meetings, have incorporated a public board discussion section into each regular meeting agenda, and we send a comprehensive, easy-to-read Board report to the media after each regular meeting.
I want to assure our community that each member of our school board has a heart for kids and high character. If mistakes are made in our lives, the way we respond to them, learn from them, and strive to do better is the most important thing.
Mountain Home Public School Superintendent Allyson Dewey
The Observer was able to uncover the text group with the help of local activists Melissa Klinger and Mark Howson, who both submitted dozens upon dozens of FOIA requests to the district while seeking answers around the school board’s decision to attempt a second special election to raise the district’s millage rate to pay for the partial demolition and rebuilding of the Mountain Home High School.
Both Klinger and Howson were opposed to the millage increase and were active in a public campaign to scuttle the school board’s attempt to raise the $55 million needed for their plans. The campaign succeeded, with the school district losing its special millage election in a landslide loss.
Klinger is known for writing highly critical articles on Substack, an online publishing platform, about public officials in Baxter County that often use incendiary language while making broad assumptions about the motives behind the officials she writes about.
She has been criticized by some officials for repeatedly failing to speak to them about issues or concerns before writing about them. She has also received criticism for not attending the public meetings she often writes about.
While her writing style is controversial to some members of the public and some government officials, her FOIA requests were able to uncover text messages between Long, current MHPS School Board President Lisa House, and former School Board President Dan Smakal.
Both text discussions showed conversations over whether the school board should move forward with a 2.25 or 2.75 mil increase for its next election to address issues with Mountain Home’s ailing high school.
The messages, which show Long revealing the results of potential straw polling from members of the school board to Smakal and House, appeared to be violations of Arkansas FOIA law at worst, and a gray area in the law at best.
In the text exchanges, Long polled to determine what millage paperwork to prepare for a future school board meeting. After looking at state law, the Observer was unable to determine whether polling over paperwork preparation crossed the line of a full FOIA violation. An opinion from the Arkansas State Attorney General or a state judge is still needed to clarify the issue.
Under state law, it is illegal for a superintendent to poll members of a school board in the hopes of knowing the board’s direction before an official vote is cast.
After publishing the text messages online, the Observer was asked by members of the public to look into the texts. The request resulted in the Observer working with Klinger and Howson, who were facing heavy pushback from the district over their numerous FOIA requests.
Only the Observer and KTLO, Classic Hits and The Boot, who began covering the scandal after the Observer released evidence showing that Long had been operating the secret text group, were the only local outlets in the area to cover the story.
In addition to uncovering the texts, the concerned pair also approached Baxter County Prosecuting Attorney David Ethredge over the text exchanges. After their discussion, Ethredge asked how they would like to proceed. Both individuals declined to prosecute at first but would later ask Ethredge to prosecute in a second meeting after more information had been uncovered.
After agreeing to look into the texts, the Observer began interviewing Long and members of the school board individually.
Of those on the board, only Bob Chester and Jason Schmeski agreed to visit in person. Lisa House and Neal Pendergrass answered questions submitted through email. Barbara Horton and Bill Wehmeyer did not respond to requests from the Observer for comment.
Smakal did not respond to requests for comment until the Observer asked Long to push Smakal to comment on the group chat.
The overall consensus between members of the school board and Long throughout various meetings and emails is that the board did not believe that it was in violation of the law and that communication with Long generally occurred in legal one-on-one sessions prior to meeting in an official capacity.
FOIA requests for text messages were denied by the district after Klinger’s initial find, with Long promising that everything had already been turned over to Klinger upon her request.
Long and some members of the school board also made it clear that they felt that Klinger’s accusations and FOIA requests were harassment.
It should be noted that last year’s millage election saw both sides of the debate lob accusations against each other in the lead-up to election day. Some accusations were true, while others crossed the line of defamation. The fallout from that election is still impacting the community today.
Out of all of the school board members serving at the time, only Jason Schmeski, who still currently serves on the board, would turn over his personal cell phone to the Observer during his interview for review.
Schmeski allowed the Observer to capture screenshots after he was told that some of the conversations were in violation of the FOIA.
In the first round of text messages in the secret group chat between Long and the school board, the discussion shifted from a joke about tearing down a high school to the LEARNS Act that was working its way through the state legislature at the time.
The discussion, which featured participation between Long, House and Smakal, focused on policy surrounding implementing the bill in the school district.
“So, if we get $20 million from taxpayer dollars, $30 million from per student government money, and budget is $35 million, what do we do with the extra,” said Lisa House.
Long responded by saying, “After ppc meeting yesterday, I recommend freeze current schedules, fulfill the implementation of Learns bill – everyone makes 50k plus 2,000 for those over 50. Spend a year studying it.”
Smakal inputted with, “My answer remains the same!”
In a text message following Smakal’s response, Bob Chester entered the discussion.
“I think the best part of reading these texts is that I don’t have to have anyone’s name except Jake’s in my phone, so I get to guess who is saying what. Please, don’t tell me who is who cuz it will take the mystery out of it. Unless of course, you are the Reverend Mother trolling me here, also, in which case identify yourself immediately.”
“Reverend Mother” is a reference to Heather Duggins, who released research on alleged inappropriate books within the district’s libraries. Duggins wrote a Substack article implying that the public should throw rocks at members of the press after the Observer broke a story on the Baxter County Election Commission violating FOIA during May’s special election last year.
The Election Commission had recently gained two new Republican commissioners after the previous ones were ousted after an entirely different scandal.
In an April 7 exchange in the chat group, members of the school board joked about the local news featuring articles about an individual with the last name of Rose being declared a fugitive at the same time that Dustin Rose was named the new assistant superintendent for the district.
That conversation pivoted with Chester taking shots at the Ozark Patriots, which was allegedly shut down by its founder last year, and Klinger’s MH Watchdog group before ultimately landing on A+ For Education, the legislative question committee in support of the millage increase, and political signs around the city.
“I hope everyone on the board at least has one in front of their house and/or business,” Chester said.
The topics of signs continued into a discussion about Wes Wood’s building across the street from the Baxter Bulletin, then school board candidate Scott Booth and questions regarding the permission to hang signs on the building.
“Same building. Booth will not publicly support the millage. I guess I have to wonder who owns the building and does A+ have permission to put that banner up on the front of their building,” Chester said.
Booth now serves as a member of the MHPS School Board after winning his election.
House responded by saying she would call Wood.
“I just talked to Wes Wood and he said that he and Booth had a conversation and he imposed that he was for the millage and I told Wes Wood he was all about and he said he may try to ask him what the deal is and why he wanted to put a sign on the backside of a promoted for millage.”
The conversation ended with Chester stating, “Right now, I can confidently say all 7 duly elected school board members and 2 of the candidates running for school board support the millage. I would love to be able to say all three candidates would commit, but I think the noncommittal candidate would lose his core support if that was the case.”
After discussing the texts with Schmeski, the Observer approached Long who initially denied that the group existed before conceding that he had formed the group at the start of his tenure at MHPS. He also confessed to telling members of the board to regularly delete their messages to each other.
After the release of the Observer’s investigation to the public, members of the board would remain silent, with only Long and Bob Chester making public comments.
Chester initially claimed that the board did not discuss business in the text group in a YouTube video but would later retract his statement and delete the video.
Long would go on to publicly claim not to know which text messages were reported on by the Observer in an interview with KTLO despite reading through the text messages with the Observer in his final interview before the story’s release.
