The Des Moines School Board failed to catch former Superintendent Ian Roberts’ conflicts of interest concerning a contract even though the district’s chief financial officer had learned of the issue three months before the contract was awarded, a state audit shows.
In a special report and during a news conference Tuesday, April 28, Iowa State Auditor Rob Sand said Des Moines Public Schools CFO Shashank Aurora had denied a previous contract in September 2023 to Lively Paradox, a consulting firm tied to Roberts. The firm’s website listed Roberts as a member of “our team” and the superintendent had published books with the firm’s founder, Nicole Price.
Aurora told the auditor he and the district’s procurement manager were the only Des Moines schools leaders who knew about the conflict at the time, and he did not share information about the issue with others in the district. It did not require administrators to disclose conflicts at the time, and Aurora said he “did not think Dr. Roberts would propose using Lively Paradox again after being declined the first time,” according to the report.
In December 2023, Roberts suggested school board members pay Lively Paradox for a leadership assessment of themselves and other district officials.
The board agreed with Roberts’ suggestion, unaware of the conflict, according to the audit. The district paid Lively Paradox $6,275.
Sand did not address the lack of communication among district leaders. He did, however, criticize district officials for not requiring administrators to disclose financial conflicts.
“We would probably think of that as deceptive,” Sand said in the news conference of Roberts’ actions. “We would probably think of that as unethical. We would probably think of that as a fireable offense, and yet the Des Moines Public Schools didn’t have a policy for conflicts of interest on the personnel side.”
The auditor’s office also found that Roberts and Lively Paradox’s CEO maintained a personal relationship that appeared “amorous,” according to a police report.
For her part, Price denied the district had rejected any contract proposal from her company. She said she did not know about the September 2023 denial that the auditor’s office referred to. And she said the School Board chair ― not Roberts ― asked her to consult for the district.
Price added that she charged half her usual fee and that Roberts received no money from the district’s contract with Lively Paradox.
“There is no conflict of interest,” she said.
On April 6, three weeks before Sand’s report, the School Board changed a policy to require that administrators disclose conflicts.
“While these findings may be considered relatively minor given the size and scope of our school district’s operations, we are determined to continue doing everything possible to adhere to all regulations,” board chair Kimberly Martorano said in a statement Tuesday.
While Martorano was on the board at the time of Roberts’ hiring, she was not chair until last November.
Auditor flags ‘questionable’ Roberts spending
In addition to the contract with Lively Paradox, the auditor’s report found that Roberts spent about $2,100 on “questionable” expenses for local nonprofits. The report also found about $47 in “unsupported” reimbursements.
Sand said he could not conduct a separate, requested audit into how Iowa Department of Education officials check the backgrounds of applicants seeking state licenses. Sand said the agency’s officials denied his request for documents.
The Des Moines School Board asked Sand’s office to review Roberts’ spending on Oct. 14, two weeks after ICE officers arrested the Guyana native on his way to a Des Moines elementary school. The arrest revealed Roberts had lacked authorization to work in the United States since 2020 ― more than two years before the district hired him as its top leader. Roberts resigned while in jail.
The arrest engulfed the district in scandal, leading some Republican lawmakers to call for a state takeover of the district, the governor to create a new policy for immigration checks for state job applicants and a Des Moines School Board member to drop out of the race for a U.S. Senate seat.
Roberts, meanwhile, pleaded guilty on Jan. 23 to federal charges of lying on employment paperwork and illegally possessing firearms. He is awaiting a May 29 sentencing hearing.
His attorney, Alfredo Parrish, did not respond to an email seeking comment Tuesday.
Sand accuses Roberts of pushing contract while CFO was out of town
According to the audit, Price traveled to Des Moines from Kansas City to lead a 2-hour session with district staffers titled “Culturally Responsive Coaching.” The district signed an agreement with Lively Paradox that would have paid the company about $10,000. But Lively Paradox waived the fee and only received $300 as travel reimbursement.
District officials told auditors that they don’t know why Price waived the fee. But that decision would have occurred around the same time that Aurora detected the conflict of interest between Roberts, the district and Lively Paradox, according to the report.
Des Moines School Board members then told Roberts in late 2023 that they wanted a consultant to conduct a leadership evaluation of the elected officials and other district leaders, according to the audit. Jackie Norris, who was board chair at the time, asked Roberts to find a consultant.
Roberts, in turn, suggested hiring Lively Paradox, Norris told the auditor’s office. She said she resisted using the company, but Roberts continued to advocate for Lively Paradox. The board ultimately agreed.
According to the audit, other district leaders “could not provide any details about the discussions between the former Board Chair and Dr. Roberts since they were not part of the discussions.” But Norris said that “all Board members were present in a conversation with Dr. Roberts” when he pushed for the contract.
Price denied Norris’ version of events, calling them “nonsensical.” She said Roberts did not ask her to conduct a leadership assessment for Des Moines. Instead, she said, Norris asked her.
“The power doesn’t go the way it’s being described,” she said, pointing out that the board is responsible for hiring and firing superintendents. “That’s just not how it works.”
A district spokesperson declined to comment on why district administrators did not know about the board discussion that Norris described if the conversation occurred among all board members. Meetings with so many elected officials are usually public.
Sand said Tuesday that Roberts waited for Aurora to leave the country on vacation before pushing through the contract with Lively Paradox. The district’s controller, who did not know about the conflict, approved the expense in December 2023 while Aurora was gone.
“(Roberts) knew he shouldn’t be doing this,” Sand said.
The district did not actually pay Price, Lively Paradox’s CEO, until March 2024. A district spokesperson declined to comment on whether Aurora learned about the transaction in the four intervening months.
On Tuesday, Sand said the district’s new policy requiring disclosure of conflicts of interest is “at least an improvement.”
Roberts’ spending on nonprofit banquets ‘questionable,’ auditor says
The auditor’s report also flagged about $2,100 in “questionable” spending on local nonprofit events.
Roberts allegedly spent $1,200 in district funds to reserve two banquet tables at a Des Moines Urban Experiences Juneteenth event in 2024. He also spent $225 for a table at the Greater Des Moines Partnership’s annual dinner in January 2024, $135 for a DMDC Urbandale Chamber dinner in May 2024 and $600 for a table at a Habitat for Humanity event in June 2024.
The auditor’s office questioned those expenses because government officials can’t use public funds for private purposes.
District officials changed their policies in the months after the 2024 banquets to prohibit such spending. Martorano, the School Board chair, said in a statement Tuesday that leaders “will more explicitly prohibit any such donations and reinforce that prohibition through training.”
The audit also found the district approved $47 for a Lyft ride that Roberts ordered while in Plano, Texas, in November 2024. At the time, according to district officials, Roberts was traveling back to Des Moines from a conference in Atlanta.
His trip included a stop in Dallas, where he was supposed to catch a connecting flight. Plano is 22 miles from Dallas. District officials told auditors that Roberts did not explain why he went there.
District officials said they would update an expense policy “including expectations related to approved travel locations and documentation of travel plan deviations.”
Sand criticizes Iowa Department of Education leaders for declining to turn over documents
Sand said Tuesday that his staff could not review how Iowa Department of Education officials spent money on licensing teachers, superintendents and other school employees because the state agency denied his request for key documents.
The auditor’s office began its inquiry after receiving a request from state Sen. Tony Bisignano, D-Des Moines. The lawmaker also asked the auditor to review contracts that the education department signed with firms to conduct background checks on applicants.
Sand said education department officials told state auditors they could not receive the documents unless the they signed an engagement letter. An education department spokesperson said the letter would outline “the scope of the audit, the objectives and the responsibilities of both parties.”
Sand declined to sign, saying the letter is not required by law. He said education department officials broke the law by denying his office’s request for documents.
“This obviously undermines our ability to do our work,” Sand said. “It undermines the ability for the Legislature to conduct oversight, and it undermines transparency for taxpayers.”
Bisignano also criticized education department officials Tuesday, saying they “stonewalled” Sand because of “petty personal politics.” Sand is Iowa’s lone statewide elected Democrat, and he is running for governor this year. The education department is an executive agency, and Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds appointed Superintendent McKenzie Snow to lead the agency.
“The families in my district, and families around the state, deserve the reassurance of knowing the failures that led to the Board of Educational Examiners issuing Ian Roberts a license have been fixed,” Bisignano said in a statement.
In a response, a department spokesperson said, “it is disappointing that … the Auditor of State has chosen to hold a press conference falsely claiming that the Department refused to respond to a targeted audit.”
The spokesperson added that education department officials did not receive Sand’s report to respond to his office’s findings before publication. She also said signing an engagement letter is the “best practice” for an audit, adding that “we welcome any review” of how the department implemented the state’s licensing and background check laws.
In a statement Tuesday, Reynolds also criticized Sand’s decision not to sign an engagement letter with the education department. She said the letter would prevent overreach, “something Sand has been known to attempt.”
“Rob Sand is yet again using his position as state auditor as a platform for his political aspirations,” she said.
This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Audit finds conflicts of interest between Ian Roberts and contractor
Reporting by Tyler Jett, Samantha Hernandez and Marissa Payne, Des Moines Register / Des Moines Register
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