Darren Beck is joining Canyon Grove Academy as the Middle School Director. He brings 26 years of experience with him as an administrator, teacher, consultant, program manager, and substitute teacher during that time in California and Utah. Mr. Beck’s 19 years in Utah also saw him serve as a member of the board for the Utah Association of Public Charter Schools, serving 3 years as Board chair, and as one of several founders of the Utah Charter Network. He has assisted with the writing and other support efforts with 12 charter schools. Darren has established great contacts and friendships with people across the country involved with education choice and reform efforts and over time has a solid working relationship with various leaders in a number of state charter school support organizations and the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools. He is a committed supporter of student voice and parent choice.

As a parent, Darren and his wife, Paula, have six graduates of Rockwell Charter High School in Eagle Mountain, the youngest having graduated in 2021. Paula developed and teaches at a successful preschool in Eagle Mountain that now has three locations. They were married in Salt Lake City in December of 1992. He became very interested in education and issues around human growth and development while living in southern Chile from 1983 to 1985. A graduate of California State University, Chico, Mr. Beck is a devout believer in education and how it can transform a person’s life. While he was not always a great student at Yuba City High School in northern California, he graduated on time in June 1982. Darren self-describes as a life-long learner and gets as excited when he learns something new as when he sees the eyes of students light up when they learn. He feels it makes life far more interesting.

Mr. Beck is excited to work at a school that values individual students and seeks to meet young people where they are instead of forcing them to be like everyone else. He believes that out-of-the-box thinking and doing, as long as it is legal and ethical, is the only way to address education as we head deeper into the 21st century. While he appreciates that some people need the familiar and known compartments, he believes that the world is anything but routine and wants to help students and support parents as they navigate it all.