During a joint legislative committee hearing Monday, two Arkansas National Guard officials blamed poor recruiting; retention and graduation rates; and cadet safety for the decision in July to shut down its Youth Challenge program after 31 years.

Blame was also placed on “bad actors” among staff members who exploited “tension” between program Director Norvell Thomas and Deputy Director Andrea Key to make “policy decisions which they shouldn’t have been making.”

For roughly 45 minutes, Jeff Wood, chief of staff for the Arkansas Department of the Military, and Brigadier General Bradley Cox, the deputy adjutant general of the Arkansas National Guard, presented to and took questions from members of the Senate’s Children and Youth Committee and the House’s Committees on Aging, Children and Youth, and

on Legislative, Military and Veterans Affairs.

Cox began the hearing by saying that former Adjutant General Jon Stubbs “with a heavy heart” made the decision to “curtail” Youth Challenge.

“But I think you will see over the course of this presentation that was the right decision, not just for the Department of military, but for the children which would have been placed in its care,” Cox added.

Wood presented the legislative members — which included just one senator and a handful of House members — a 13-page PowerPoint detailing the issues and problems that the program, which consisted of a 22-week residential program and a 12-month post-residential mentoring period, faced over the last two years.

Much of it consisted of the results found in a March 2023 audit done by The Spectrum Group and the National Guard Bureau, and the various internal investigations into reports of wrongdoing, including suspected sexual assault of a female cadet by a female cadre.

Among the incidents on the campus was six cadets testing positive for THC who had not left the campus in 45 days.

Wood said the Guard was unable to substantiate claims that cadre members were selling marijuana to cadets.

According to rules, Wood said that for every 25 cadets, one cadre was required. But at one point there were 19 vacancies. Over time, 21 people who said they wanted to accept a position never showed up or changed their mind.

STAFF REQUIREMENTS

At one point Wood detailed the minimum requirements for being hired as a cadre — the staff members who were essentially the “drill instructors” for cadets — which is the “education equivalent of a high school diploma,” in addition to “one year of specialized or related experience.”

Wood admitted that the last part was “honestly … pretty vague.”

“There’s a lot of things that could fit into that,” he said. “So (there was) a very low, low threshold on the entry qualifications for the position, which again, probably contributed to the level of staff we were bringing in.”

Also, the salary for the cadre was an issue.

Not long before the decision to shut Youth Challenge down, the salary was raised from $27,000 to $32,000.

“I think it’s a combination of the salary, but also the qualifications to take the position are just one step above the students that are in the program,” Cox said. “I think that lends itself to a little bit of a dangerous situation.”

The staffing woes were so bad, from February 2022 to December 2023, active National Guard service members and enlisted had to be brought in three separate groups to supplement the program’s training officers.

LOW GRADUATION RATES

As for graduation rates, Youth Challenge programs are supposed to graduate 75% of those who start out in a class.

For Arkansas, it never cracked more than 66% among its last four classes.

Rep. Julie Mayberry, R-Hensley, the vice-chair of the House committee, asked Wood “is this the end forever of this program, or is there some way that, given some time and new effort and new energy, that we can bring the program back and better?”

Wood said that once federal funding is “turned off” for a program like Youth Challenge, it’s up to a year-and-ahalf before it can be applied for again.

“The states that do that, they want to see an extremely detailed plan of ‘hey, we saw what happened last time. What are you going to do to make sure it doesn’t happen again?’” Wood added.

Cox said that “if the National Guard Bureau had shut the program down, then the odds of us ever getting the program back had been slim to none.

“And we were due another inspection this fall,” he added. “So that also played into the decision General Stubbs went through to come to this conclusion.”

Rep. Aaron Pilkington, R-Knoxville, was one of the four House members who asked questions of Wood and Cox.

Pilkington’s line of questioning addressed the leadership of Thomas and Key.

A Little Rock native, Thomas was hired to the role of program director in October 2021.

Before arriving at Youth Challenge, he had served in multiple roles with the Department of Human Services, most recently six years spent as a Hospital Training Coordinator in the Division of Aging, Adult and Behavioral Health Services at the Arkansas State Hospital.

At the time of his hiring at Youth Challenge, Thomas held a bachelor’s degree in social work from Almeda University, had taken psychology classes at Argosy University and was set to graduate from the University of Arkansas with a nursing degree.

According to his hiring packet, during the interview for the job Thomas told the interviewer that he had “no knowledge” about the Department of the Military, but he had worked with a Youth Challenge Program in some capacity while attending Illinois State University. It was noted that he had “vast knowledge about DHS programs, including child programs.”

Key, on the other hand, had been with Youth Challenge “for numerous years,” according to Wood.

LEADERSHIP FAILURE

“What has become of the director and the deputy director?” Pilkington asked. “I mean, clearly their failure in leadership created such an issue. Did they at any point have to atone for their failures in leadership? What’s happened to them?”

Wood said that after the Spectrum audit showed an issue between Thomas and Key, “we addressed it by restructuring, guiding with them, gave them some counseling, tried to redo it.”

The chief of staff added that he believed “we addressed it appropriately when we restructured and set up definitive lines of” what the director and deputy director do in their jobs.

“I think they were working together better,” Wood said. “They had deviated from the National Guard Bureau’s model on how Youth Challenge programs should be structured and so we went there and restructured it.”

Wood reiterated that “the bigger issue” was cadre members “exploiting that rift” between the directors.

“Just so that I’m clear, these two individuals ran this program into the ground, in which we’re having to shut it down, and yet they are still employed and still part of your organization?” Pilkington asked.

“The deputy director has moved onto another job,” Wood answered. “The other director is still there. … His last day will be this Friday.”

In a follow-up question asked via email, Wood said Key “submitted her resignation and works outside state government.”

Wood was also asked when the final decision to end the program was made and about any feedback from Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders’ office.

“If memory serves, it was in early July, after it became clear we would be unable to attract and retain qualified staff,” Wood replied. “The Governor concurred with then-Major General Stubbs’ recommendation.”

Asked about how handsoff Department of the Military leadership was with Youth Challenge, especially given what Wood described as a lack of “flow of information” from the program in regards to incident reports, Wood said “the three of us came into office in January 2023. I can’t speculate to the prior leadership’s involvement in the Youth Challenge Program. Leadership directed significant incident reports going forward be completed based on applicable requirements.”

NO MILITARY BACKGROUND

After the hearing, Pilkington said he was “perplexed” by the Arkansas National Guard’s decision to hire someone as deputy director who didn’t have a military background.

“I could understand why someone would think, maybe you don’t necessarily need to have a military background, because working with the youth in itself is its own unique demographic to deal with,” Pilkington said. “With an organization like this that is so military-esque, you would think they would have (military-based leadership).”

Of the hearing in general, Pilkington said he was “glad they were honest about what was going on. I think anytime you’re dealing with kids, whether it’s schools or youth programs like this, there’s always chances for bad things to happen.

“I’m glad it’s not as bad as what you’ve seen in some other institutions around the country,” he added.

As for the children who were supposed to be part of this year’s second Youth Challenge class, Pilkington said he thought the state “shipping them off to Kentucky is not an ideal situation.”

“I’d like to keep them in state and provide resources in Arkansas, as opposed to sending them to other states,” he said. “Because I think it sends the wrong message to our youth that take part in a program like this, we’re gonna ship you to another state and not have your home state be there for you.”

The chair of the Children and Youth committee, Sen. Bryan King, R-Green Forrest, was the only senator out of 10 on the committee who attended the hearing.

“I’ve been down here and had agencies have a lot more (issues) and then cover it up, not have to say anything,” King said. “It’s probably right now the best time to make a difficult decision, especially with the federal funds being more competitive.

“There’s a larger picture here of getting the quality people to work, and then the people to show up and work and stuff,” he said. “So it’s a number of issues here to think about.”

King said that while the $9 million in federal funding that went to Youth Challenge was “not a real big budget,” it is “certainly (an) important one.”

King said that with questions still being asked about the Youth Challenge program, the odds of more hearings into the matter are “pretty good.”