What started as a typical school year for Iowa’s largest school district quickly unraveled when federal immigration officials arrested Ian Roberts, superintendent of the Des Moines schools.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers arrested Roberts on Sept. 26 in a targeted operation. He allegedly fled from authorities in a district-owned vehicle with a loaded handgun and roughly $3,000 in cash.
In the weeks since, more details about Roberts have emerged, many of which leaders in Des Moines and a Pennsylvania district he previously led said came as a surprise. Those details included that he’s not a U.S. citizen despite having claimed to be, that he lacked authorization to work in the United States, that an immigration judge had ordered him deported, that he faced prior criminal charges, that he misrepresented where and when he earned a doctoral degree, and had previously lied about earning a doctorate. Roberts resigned from the Des Moines post through his lawyer on Sept. 30, and the district quickly accepted it.
The revelations have prompted questions about the hiring and vetting process Roberts went through in Des Moines and other school systems where he worked. Many of those questions have revolved around districts’ use of executive search firms to find and vet candidates for their top posts.
The Des Moines district has already filed a lawsuit against the search firm it used to find Roberts alleging it did not fulfill its contractual duties, and the board of the Millcreek Township district in Pennsylvania has voted to pursue legal action against the firm it relied on.
Superintendent searches can be lengthy and arduous, often involving third-party firms to assist school boards. To be sure, Roberts’ case marks an anomaly in the education world—his is the first immigration-related arrest of a superintendent in at least five years, according to an Education Week review of local news reports.
But there are potential pitfalls in the typical vetting process that school districts should keep in mind when navigating superintendent searches, according to experts who spoke with Education Week.
What prior experience do superintendents usually have?
Typically, superintendents move up the school district ranks—with experience as teachers, principals, and district administrators—before being appointed to the top post.
A 2023 study by researchers at the University of Texas examined differences between women and men in the superintendency between 2010 and 2021. The study found that women were more likely to hold several district administration positions before being hired as a superintendent, while men were more commonly hired directly from a principal position.
Thirty-five percent of men who became superintendents during the study period were promoted from principal to superintendent within three years, compared with 27% of women. Additionally, 65% of white administrators were hired as superintendents directly from a principal position, compared with 40% of Hispanic administrators and 24% of Black administrators, according to the study.
What qualifications do superintendents need to have?
The required qualifications for superintendents are set at the state level, and vary widely.
Generally, candidates must hold at least a master’s degree, have school administration experience, and states sometimes require that superintendents complete a state-approved preparation program. Some states require classroom teaching experience.
The Drexel University School of Education estimates that it takes 11 to 14 years to accrue the needed experience to become a superintendent.
Do superintendents have to be U.S. citizens?
If superintendents are authorized to work in the United States, they are generally eligible to serve as a district’s top leader, according to John Doherty and Frank Sheboy, both former superintendents who now work with the New Jersey-based School Liability Expert Group, which provides expert witnesses to schools and attorneys on a number of issues including district personnel matters.
Every new employee in a school district—as with any other employer—must fill out an I-9 verification form, which requires employers to examine certain documents that prove a person is legally authorized to work. All employers in the United States must obtain and retain an I-9 for every person they hire, according to U.S. Citizen and Immigration Services.
Those requirements are the same whether the district is hiring a substitute teacher, part-time bus driver, or superintendent, said Sheboy, a former superintendent in New York state.
“Those rules are established by the federal government,” he said. “They are not discretionary or district by district. Regardless of the role … the eligibility for employment is the same.”
As of last year, 21 states required that all or some employers use the federal E-Verify system to confirm employees’ or prospective employees’ eligibility to work in the United States.
But Iowa isn’t one of those states, and the Des Moines school system has confirmed it didn’t use E-Verify in hiring Roberts.
Even E-Verify isn’t foolproof, however. In August, the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees E-Verify, accused a Maine police department of “reckless reliance” on the system when it hired an officer who was not legally in the country, despite vetting him through E-Verify.
What is the typical process for hiring a new superintendent?
It is common for school boards to hire consulting or search firms to manage the recruitment and vetting of superintendent candidates. Often, state superintendent associations provide these services.
School boards that hire a consulting firm typically issue requests for proposals (RFPs) to determine which firm will be the best fit. Basically, they “vet the vetters,” Sheboy said, and school boards generally “won’t just pick the cheapest option.”
Those firms often facilitate community engagement efforts to identify residents’ priorities for what they want to see in the next district leader; manage advertising, recruiting, and outreach; conduct initial candidate interviews; and present the local school board with a list of finalists to consider, according to Doherty and Sheboy, as well as an Education Week review of several search firms’ websites.
Some firms conduct background checks of finalists, as well as reviews of news articles about the candidate, candidates’ social media activity, and other publicly available information about them that might not be included in a criminal background check, such as financial records.
One popular search firm warns on its website: “It is not always possible to uncover all issues that a candidate may have in their background if issues are not public and references are not forthright.” But the firm’s website says, “it is extremely rare that a material issue surfaces regarding a candidate’s background after the superintendent has been hired.”
Along with the background checks, searches of social media, and news clips, it is common for finalists to both visit the district considering them, and for staff members from the district to visit the candidate’s current district to “meet with different groups of people and … learn as much as they possibly can about each of the finalists,” Sheboy said.
Des Moines contracted with JG Consulting in advance of hiring Roberts, charging the firm with advertising the position, recruiting candidates, reviewing resumes, conducting public domain searches, performing reference checks, and presenting qualified candidates to the school board, according to the school system’s lawsuit against JG Consulting.
JG Consulting, in turn, contracted with another firm, Baker-Eubanks, to conduct a background check of Roberts, according to the Des Moines school system.
JG Consulting said in a statement that it intends to defend itself against Des Moines’ claims in court and that it has an “extensive record of successfully supporting school districts across the nation in identifying candidates for the position of school superintendent and related executive roles.”
The firm added that Roberts provided the documents necessary to show he was eligible for the Des Moines position and that, as the school board has publicly acknowledged, the firm “identified and reported to the board on the discrepancy in his educational history prior to the board making its selection.
“The board decided to proceed forward with Mr. Roberts despite that notification,” the consulting firm’s statement said.
Baker-Eubanks has told Iowa media it wasn’t contracted to verify Roberts’ citizenship or work authorization.
Why are many superintendent searches considered confidential or private?
Searches are often considered private and “closed” to the community to protect candidates’ privacy.
If the search is open from the point a person submits a resume, it can be difficult to attract a robust pool of candidates, Doherty and Sheboy said.
Candidates might be less likely to apply for a role that they are not guaranteed to get if it’s likely their current school community will find out, they said.
Some state laws dictate when a superintendent search process goes public, though.
In some states, public records laws require districts to disclose the names of people who applied, if requested. Elsewhere, districts only have to name finalists. And in some states, there are no disclosure requirements.
How long does vetting and hiring typically take for a superintendent?
The process should take six months to a year from start to finish, said Sheboy. Usually, finalists spend 24 to 48 hours in total with those involved in the search process, he said, through a combination of interviews, site visits, and other interactions.
What else should hiring committees think about during the vetting process?
During a superintendent search, school boards should ensure background checks are comprehensive and, if possible, go beyond what is legally required, said Doherty, a former superintendent in Massachusetts.
Criminal background checks generally only look back seven years, and might not include all counties, states, and federal courts, he said.
What might surface in a state background check might not be included in a search of federal cases, he said.
It’s also important that those conducting the searches and vetting are wary of “confirmation bias,” Sheboy added. Don’t overlook potential problems because someone has been in education for a long time and has a good reputation, he said.
Ultimately, no search is perfect, Doherty and Sheboy said.
“Even with the best search firm, there are blind spots that they would not uncover, because it is virtually impossible to interview everybody who’s interacted with that superintendent candidate,” Sheboy said. “That’s just the reality.”
What red flags might not show up in a background check?
Any questions about financial problems or irregularities with past districts’ budgets could raise a red flag, Sheboy said. Hiring committees should question those findings further, both with the candidate and with any entity that flagged those problems, like a local comptroller’s office or inspector general.
Hiring committees should also watch for frequent, unexplained job changes to similarly sized districts, and analyze candidates’ relationships with staff unions in previous districts. Were negotiations for new contracts long and contentious? Have unions issued votes of no confidence? Those could offer important insights into a candidate’s leadership style, Doherty said.
It’s also important for the hiring committee to ensure a candidate has a good track record of working with community organizations and local governments.
“In terms of the actual search process, the most important thing a board can do is hire a superintendent and then work to retain that superintendent and make sure they can succeed,” Doherty said. “So, at the end of the day, it’s the board’s job to make sure that the reference checks and background checks have been done correctly, and the process has gone well. Even though they’ve hired a firm to do it, they need to make sure that it’s being done with fidelity.”
What happens if a superintendent faces a criminal charge after they’ve taken the job?
Many districts have policies that require employees, including the superintendent, to notify district staff of certain arrests and citations.
Montgomery County public schools in Maryland, for example, requires all employees to report within seven days arrests related to sexual abuse or violent crimes.
The Kimberly district in Idaho requires staff to notify the district of any misdemeanor or felony arrests or charges.
Generally, districts’ policies state that employees’ failure to notify their employer of the listed charges could be grounds for termination.
The Des Moines district itself requires employees to notify the human resources department within three business days of an arrest, aside from “simple misdemeanors.”
Virginia passed a law in 2023 that requires police to notify school systems when employees are arrested for felonies or Class 1 misdemeanors, which can include assault causing physical injury, theft, reckless driving, and driving under the influence charges.
What went wrong in Des Moines and other places where Roberts worked?
Des Moines leaders have said Roberts deceived them and that JG Consulting failed to properly vet him. They have also suggested their hiring processes could change going forward as they review the district’s hiring processes.
“Ian Roberts should have never been presented as a potential superintendent,” Des Moines school board President Jackie Norris said in the Oct. 3 statement announcing the lawsuit against JG Consulting.
Prior to Des Moines, Roberts led the Millcreek Township school district in Erie, Pa., from 2020 to 2023. On Oct. 6, that district’s board voted to explore suing Roberts and Ray and Associates, the firm the school system used to recruit Roberts.
When Roberts applied to Millcreek, he claimed to have already earned a doctorate from Morgan State University—which turned out to be false. He earned a doctorate after Millcreek hired him, but from Trident University International, not Morgan State.
The Millcreek district, in a statement, said the firm was meant to “provide the board with criminal, civil litigation, social security, motor vehicle record checks and verification of educational degrees for the top (2-3) candidates.”
“This clause of their agreement was clearly not upheld,” board leaders said.
Ray and Associates and Alfredo Parrish, Roberts’ attorney, did not respond to requests for comment.
