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Three months of his tenure have been completed des moines In public schools, Ian Roberts asked the district’s board for emergency approval of $116,000 in contracts.
The agreement to provide training on “culturally responsive coaching” was to be approved within a few days, the superintendent said. But an Associated Press investigation found that the district’s purchasing manager discovered that a contract had been earmarked for a company that marketed Roberts as a consultant and speaker, sold his books and helped raise his profile.
Finance officials warned Roberts that contracting with Kansas City-based Lively Paradox would be a conflict of interest, and Roberts canceled a special board meeting he had requested in September 2023.
Since his arrest by immigration agents last month, the public has grappled with how Roberts managed to remain superintendent for so long despite allegedly lacking authorization to work in the US, having a history of criminal charges and presenting fraudulent credentials.
The AP found that as Roberts’ profile rose in education, her relationship with Lively Paradox and its founder Nicole Price became beneficial during a period when many organizations supported diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives. Blurring the line between his public and private jobs, the investigation found that Price was awarded contracts worth thousands of dollars from school districts where Roberts held leadership positions.
The AP reviewed district records, court filings and books and marketing materials published by Lively Paradox and Price, who met Roberts during a chance encounter at an airport a decade ago.
Roberts, who is in federal custody, has defended his outside work as helping to transform education. His lawyer declined to comment.
Records show that months after Des Moines officials blocked his effort to contract with Lively Paradox, the district paid the firm $6,476 in consulting and travel expenses for Price’s work to facilitate a two-hour team-building exercise at a school board retreat in December 2023. A spokeswoman said that amount could be approved by Roberts without board approval.
Roberts wrote in his original resume for the Des Moines position that he was an executive leadership coach at Lively Paradox and had moved from district position to district position in four states since its founding. Price co-authored two books with Roberts and wrote the introduction to the second book, promoting him as a former Olympian and motivational teacher known for turning around schools.
“I consider Dr. Roberts one of the finest leaders I have ever met,” Price said in an interview after Roberts’ arrest. “Calm under pressure, lead with empathy, mission driven and focused and able to bring people along.”
As Roberts changes districts, work begins for Price
The AP found that as Roberts changed jobs, the Price and Lively Paradox gained new clients.
Price’s clients include many corporations and government agencies, as his curriculum vitae shows. But where Roberts has been hired, the school districts he lists as clients appear to be located exclusively in Kansas and missouri,
In a video posted in 2021 InstagramRoberts joined Price to celebrate the five-year anniversary of Lively Paradox. He recalled that when Roberts served as network superintendent, St. Louis Public Schools was targeted for business for the new firm.
“Your district was one of those that I said, ‘Okay, I’ve got to take them on as a client’,” Price said. “But I went through the same RFP process that everyone else did.”
With his district status and vibrant protest affiliation, he made St. Louis “one of the first to do the work of becoming a culturally responsive district,” Roberts said.
It is unclear how much was paid by the district, but records show she received thousands of dollars in payments for the 2017 presentation. His course description shows that he also conducted a workshop there in February 2018.
After Roberts became administrator at Aspire Public Schools in Oakland, that public charter school system paid out at least $8,300 for services, according to a disbursement report covering part of 2019.
Price provided leadership training to the Millcreek Township School District in Pennsylvania in 2020 and 2021 while Roberts was superintendent, according to his resume.
He said there were no improprieties in Roberts’ work in his districts, “only his long-term commitment to mission-driven work and compassionate leadership.”
St. Louis Public Schools, Aspire Public Schools and Millcreek Township School District did not respond to requests for comment.
Roberts and Price form partnership after airport meeting
Price recalled that Roberts was “impeccably dressed” when they met at a North Carolina airport in 2014. She was working at a leadership firm at the time where she focused on diversity and inclusion.
Price credited Roberts with teaching him how education differed from the corporate sectors in which he worked. He discussed his view that, rather than firing unproductive subordinates, education leaders should give them every opportunity to develop.
Price said they stayed in touch. In 2016, he was laid off from his job and founded Lively Paradox to focus on providing training to urban school leaders.
Roberts was with him from the beginning. In 2017, the two co-authored “The Power of Seven Second Chances”, their approach to managing schools with compassion.
He later co-authored “Dangerous Indifference: The Case for Culturally Responsive Leadership”, which called for leaders to embrace and understand differences. Price wrote the introduction to Roberts’ next book, “Radical Empathy”.
Price said that the books, self-published and available for purchase online, “didn’t really sell very well” because Roberts mostly ordered them to give away at conventions.
He said the two worked together for years to train school leaders and transform organizations.
It is unclear how much outside income Roberts received. Lively Paradox advertises a two-day “high performance workshop” for $38,975, keynote presentations for $15,000, and coaching packages for $9,995.
His collaboration with Roberts has continued behind bars. Price said that on September 29 he was asked by Roberts’ wife to give the go-ahead to publish a book titled “Unshakeable”, a compilation of Roberts’ inspirational messages to Des Moines schools.
Price said she knew nothing about his immigration status and was shocked by his arrest.
Roberts convicted of conflict of interest
When he was hired in Des Moines in 2023, board members were aware of Roberts’ outside work. His contract, which included an annual salary of $286,716 this year, allowed him to undertake “occasional consulting or speaking engagements, writing, lecturing, or other professional endeavors” with the approval of the board chair.
The only agenda item for the meeting, called for September 29, 2023, included Roberts’ recommendation to award $116,000 to Lively Paradox and another firm for professional development.
The document said the district evaluated four vendors and Roberts recommended the two that “best meet the needs of the district.” The spending will come from federal funding aimed at improving the performance of school leaders.
District procurement manager Joanne Khunlo-Filawanh discovered that Lively Paradox listed Roberts as part of its team, district spokesperson Phil Roeder said. He and the district’s chief financial officer, Shashank Arora, met with Roberts to discuss the conflict of interest, he said.
Roberts wrote to board members that “the meeting is no longer needed after receiving another update from the finance team.”
The current board president, Jackie Norris, was a board member at the time and said district staff told her about conflict of interest concerns and they were addressed with Roberts. “I feel strongly that there needs to be a review of all expenses related to the former superintendent,” he said.
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Foley reported from Iowa City, Iowa.