Danville school board chair files ethics complaint against Vermont senator for alleged role in pressuring public high school closure

The Danville School District’s board chair filed an ethics complaint on Wednesday against Sen. Scott Beck, R-Caledonia, alleging he “used his position and legislative influence to advance a narrative and push” the district to try and close high school grades, a move that would benefit the nearby private school where he works.

Clayton Cargill wrote in his complaint that Beck had warned Cargill and Cabot School District board chair Chris Tormey that the Vermont Legislature was likely to pass legislation to restrict school choice for districts that close their schools.

Beck advised that the two chairs should encourage their boards to move forward with school closure votes before the new year “if we wanted to preserve the option of tuitioning students to independent schools,” Cargill wrote in his complaint. Beck’s warning was first reported by Seven Days.

Neither town was actively considering closing their schools prior to Beck’s advice, Cargill wrote in an email to lawmakers on the Senate Ethics Committee. Beck is an employee of St. Johnsbury Academy, a nearby private school where he works as a social studies teacher.

“Although Senator Beck provided no evidence for his claims, I took them seriously and raised the issue at the Danville School Board meeting on (Sept. 2),” Cargill wrote in the complaint.

Cargill wrote that Beck texted him several more times after the Sept. 2 meeting, first asking about undecided board members’ votes on school closure, and later texting Cargill that the board “should let the voters have their say. Takes all the pressure off the board.”

According to the complaint, Cargill replied that did not “have the board votes for that just yet but that’s what I’m working on.” Beck replied that it was “difficult to deny democracy.”

In the complaint, Cargill wrote it was “notable” that Beck only reached out to the Danville and Cabot school districts and not Twinfield, which also operates high school grades nearby.

“He contacted only two, and one—Cabot—is not even in his district,” Cargill wrote. “The only clear link between the schools he approached is their proximity to his employer.”

Cargill, in his email to lawmakers, said the private school “stands to benefit financially if these schools close” and that it was “a clear conflict of interest.”

The Caledonia County senator has refuted claims that he had a conflict of interest, and said he was merely offering his opinion to his constituents.

Beck in an interview on Wednesday said that his “job is to represent and to let people know what the facts are and what my opinions are and what I think their possible courses of action are, and that’s what I’ve done here.”

He pointed to specific language that had been in an earlier version of the legislation last session requiring school districts that close a school and designate just three public schools to receive their students.

“Would it have been responsible of me to not tell anybody that someone just made a serious attempt to take away your local control?” he said. “Should I not tell them that, and just ignore it like it never happened? What happens down the road if it actually does happen? … In some ways I feel like I’m caught in the middle here, I’m the messenger, so people aren’t happy about that.”

Regardless, Beck’s advice to the board chairs in Danville and Cabot has created “urgency and confusion in both communities,” Cargill wrote to lawmakers.

The Cabot School District had previously considered circulating a survey to residents about closing their schools and opting for school choice. But Tormey said that the board decided to hold off on the survey “until we find out next year how Cabot School will be placed within the new statewide map.”

Danville, however, is set to hold a vote on Dec. 6 on whether to shutter its high school grades at the Danville School and instead pay tuition for students to attend other schools, following a petition submitted to the board. Public school faculty said closure would have an immense impact on public high school students in the region.

“Both towns have been thrust into the media spotlight and residents in both communities are worried,” he wrote. “We are in danger of closing based on something Scott Beck told people might happen.”

In his email to lawmakers, Cargill said he was told by lawmakers and other public education officials that Beck’s behavior may have violated legislative ethical guidelines.

“I have sought guidance in all the places I know to seek guidance. I’ve beseeched people I treat as mentors. … I was told by many of your colleagues ‘this isn’t right,’” Cargill wrote to lawmakers. “Many of them encouraged me to be steadfast enough to submit this, and as such, I am.”

Beck was previously the focus of a separate ethics complaint filed in June that accused him and Sen. Seth Bongartz, D-Bennington, of using their positions on a critical committee negotiating the final form of a wide-ranging education bill to advance provisions that benefited the private schools with which they are or have been associated.

Bongartz and Beck have forcefully denied that accusation.

This story was republished with permission from VtDigger, which offers its reporting at no cost to local news organizations through its Community News Sharing Project. To learn more, visit vtdigger.org/community-news-sharing-project.