[A] private school in Brattleboro that serves children with autism is getting a closer look from the State Board of Education after a former employee’s alleged financial misconduct – including potential embezzlement – led payroll to bounce and the school to close down for several days.
The I.N.S.P.I.R.E. School’s co-founder and trustee, Craig White, came before the board last week to tell them trustees had dipped into their own pockets to make sure employees were made whole, engaged a new accountant, and put new safeguards in place.
Several State Board members said they were reassured by White’s testimony but still needed additional information. The board ultimately voted to put I.N.S.P.I.R.E. on notice the state believes the school “lacks financial capacity,” language that triggers a review process under a new state law passed in 2018 to provide additional oversight of independent schools.
“It’s clear that you have made quick work of turning around a very difficult situation,” said board member Oliver Olsen. “But that being said, these are some serious issues that need some further evaluation.”
The review process initiated last Wednesday by the state board doesn’t preclude the school from operating and accepting students. Once they receive a written response from I.N.S.P.I.R.E., board members can decide to either drop the matter or send an in-person team to investigate. As a last resort, they can revoke the school’s “approved” status as an independent school, which allows it to receive public tuition dollars.
Like most private schools that cater specifically to students with disabilities, most of I.N.S.P.I.R.E.’s revenues come from public school districts that tuition in students.
Michael Bandler, a certified public accountant recently retained by the school who attended last week’s meeting with White, told the board the school had billed at least $1.4 million to districts in the last fiscal year, but that those numbers weren’t final. The school enrolls children from Vermont, New Hampshire and Massachusetts, he said.
White told the board the financial trouble stemmed from a former business manager who reported false information to trustees about how the school was doing. Because they were under the impression the school had more money than it really had, trustees overspent on things like a new kitchen and expanding vocational training, he said.
“We were led to believe as a board that we were doing better than we were financially,” White said.
White said trustees weren’t aware anything was amiss until “the crash” in the fall. Several payrolls bounced, and the school had to close for three days when liability insurance wasn’t paid on the building.
“The board itself has contributed $100,000 of our own money to right the ship, to make everything stable,” he said.
The employee being blamed for the misreporting is now the subject of a criminal investigation, White said. Bandler said he estimated about $25,000 might have been misappropriated.
Emily Simmons, the general counsel for the Vermont Agency of Education, told State Board members in a memo the agency had become aware of “concerning operational issues” while conducting a licensing investigation back in October of 2018.
Those issues included that the school had failed to make payroll, that it failed to file its tax returns, and that it let its employees’ health insurance lapse. The school also enrolled a student with a disability it was not approved to serve, Simmons said.
Another red flag included the “use of designated funds for non-designated purposes; specifically, that the school had allegedly been the victim of embezzlement, which is the subject of a criminal investigation in Windham County.”
It’s unclear if the criminal investigation into the former I.N.S.P.I.R.E. employee is ongoing. And officials with the state, local police, and the school have all declined to name the person suspected of wrongdoing.
Brattleboro police detective Joshua Lynde said his department had investigated a matter at the school but ultimately decided not to press any charges.
“There just wasn’t enough there to bring something,” he said.
Lynde added that other law enforcement agencies had also been involved and could still be investigating. But Lynde, who said a now-retired officer had done most of the work on the case, said he couldn’t remember which police departments they were.
The Vermont State Police is not involved, according to spokesperson Adam Silverman. Neither is the Windham County Sheriff’s department. (Mark Anderson, the sheriff, also sits on I.N.S.P.I.R.E.’s board. He said his office was conflicted out of investigating.)
The Agency of Education does not typically release information about educators subject to licensing investigations until charges are brought before a licensing panel or other disciplinary action is taken. Education officials said no charges had been brought against an I.N.S.P.I.R.E. employee and declined to answer questions about law enforcement involvement.
“In the absence of formal charges or a public disciplinary action against a licensee, per 16 V.S.A. §1708, the Agency cannot reveal details or information that may be related to the licensing investigation,” Ted Fisher, a spokesperson for the agency, wrote in an email.
Reached by phone, White declined to answer questions, saying school officials had been told not to speak publicly about the matter for the time being.
“I can’t tell you anything,” he said.